The Black Bell
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: 1920 A&A, historical AU. The flu pandemic returns to a small town. Arthur is a new school teacher, fresh from the trenches of the Great War, in a community haunted by last winter's large death toll. Ariadne is one of the surviving victims who lost her whole family to the disaster. When the flu comes back, the town isolates itself from the rest of the world, and real panic sets in.
1. Chapter 1

**1920 A&A AU. After the first wave of the Spanish Flu pandemic, the town of Emery has isolated itself as the illness which claimed whole families comes back. Arthur, a veteran of the Great War, has come to teach at the local school but is still in a state of shell shock from battle. Ariadne, her whole family gone last year, is deeply depressed and fears she won't survive the coming winter. But their inner demons are no match for the real danger of the towns people, now gripped with paranoia. **

1.

~ Ariadne rolled over in her sleep and tried to hold onto the dream she was having.

She was partially awake now and could hear the howling of the wind outside. Or was it wolves who were howling?

She tried to keep the images of her dream intact. It was interesting and she always liked it when she had interesting dreams. Surely they meant something.

She was being murdered. Her and a group of other people were all dress in dark colors with traces of purple in their dresses and coats.

They were being hunted in the woods and murdered by unseen hands as they tried to hide. Tried to hide from the fearful thing that was killing them.

She could feel something sharp pierce her heart and looked down to see her own dark blood seeping through.

A young man had also been killed, but he cast off his body as though it were a old blanket.

"Are we dead?" she shouted at him in near panic as she saw the blood on her clothing. She sensed she had crossed over into another realm. The woods were darker, yet she could see better.

"Yes." the young man said. "I think so."

"No." she sobbed and searched for her body. "It's not fair!"

"It might not be so bad." he said gently and tried to comfort her as she cried for the loss of her own life. "We're not alone. That's the worst thing in the world to be... alone."

She didn't care. Didn't care that the others who died with her were now surrounding her and telling her it was going to be alright. She sensed they were good people. All their clothing dark and purple in this strange place. But she knew nothing would be alright again.

~ She woke up with a start. Her head pounding as the dream slipped out of her memory as though it were smoke. The house was too quite and that made her skin shiver with unease.

Her bed was too cold as well. She looked over at the hearth in the Harper family home. Her family, all seven of them, inhabited a small cottage on the outskirts of Emery. A town with a healthy population, but still deep in the country.

The cottage wasn't built to house the growing family and her parents had elected to simple crowd their brood into the front room, while the adults had the back to themselves.

It was a fair arrangement that meant Ariadne slept in a small bed with her much younger sister, Adel. While her older brothers, Sam and Ben, had the bed opposite. Their grandmother happily slept as close to the hearth as she could. Some night she would relent and sleep a few hours in the bed they had for her, but mostly she fell asleep knitting in her rocker by the warmth of the fire.

With all the people in such close quarters, there was always noise of some kind. Adel chattering, Ben and Sam arguing. Granny humming, mamma cooking or dad's heavy boots on the floor.

Now, there was nothing. No sleeping noises coming from anyone. Only the wind and it's odd howling trying to break through the windows. The heavy oak door creaking as the wind tried to force it open.

She looked at the door a long time. Half expecting some kind of specter to barge in and grab her.

She had been sick for days with a strange illness that sent her to the little bed in the corner. Her mother worrying about her as her father was telling her brothers not to go to town. She remembered being hot. So hot she felt she would burst into flames. Remembered her mother trying to cool her down with a cold water as she sweated and moaned.

She didn't remember much else as her body grew weak and the talk of the Spanish flu taking her soon reached her in her sleep. She didn't want to die. She was getting married int he summer. She wanted to wear the white dress her mother and grandmother were sewing the lace work for.

No, she didn't want to die.

The wind seemed to lose interest in breaking down the family door and Ariadne let out a sigh of relief. She peered around the dark room. The moonlight coming in from the window was bright enough to see her mother and father had made sleeping pallets on the floor. She looked at them curiosly before she felt Adel laying next to her. Her young sister, only seven years old, was turned away from her. Her hair was messed and seemed lank and sweated to her neck. It has always been long and shinny before.

"Adel?" Ariadne said horsely and realized she was very thirsty.

She swallowed hard and wanted cold water to drink. Maybe even with a little sugar in to help it go down.

She felt dizzy and weak from hunger as she nudged her sister awake.

"Adel?" she said gently. Her sister didn't stir at all. It was then Ariadne noticed how cold and ridged her body was.

"Adel." she said in shock. She rolled her sister's body over, and the moonlight coming in from the window cast a pale light on Adel's open, milky eyes.

Ariadne pulled away from the child as though she had been bitten. Her breathing coming in horrible gasps at the thought of her sister dead.

Had she done this? Did she hurt her sister in her sleep maybe? Adel was young and healthy, surely she wouldn't have died.

She looked at her parents sleeping on the floor. The stillness in the cottage broken only by Ariadne's heavy, frightened breathing.

"Mommy?" she croaked with her parched voice. "Mommy!"

She kept as far away from her sister as she could and crawled out of their shared bed. The wooden floor of the cottage was cold on her feet and she wished one of her brothers and thought to tend the fire before turning in for the night. The cottage was freezing and her body was too weak and her head hurt too much.

"Mommy?" she whispered approaching her mother's side. It only came to her much later, that her parents weren't making the sleeping sounds she was used to. Her father wasn't snoring his loud, bear like grumble. Her mother wasn't breathing heavy which meant she was peacefully in the land of dreams.

Neither one of them were making any sounds. Not even breathing.

"Dad?" she cried softly as she touched the cold, dead hands of her father.

"Dad?" she said shaking him. Hoping he would snap awake.

He and her mother didn't wake. They lay there on their bed pallets. Their bodies cold and like an empty shell.

She tried not to sob as she turned to her brother's bed. Two boys in their teens and never were there a pair of healthier young men. They were loud and boisterous at all times and their mother would often lock them out of the house to keep them from tearing it apart.

"Ben! Sam!" she said shaking them. Their skin even colder than their parents and Ben looked as though he had been ill just before he died.

This was a nightmare. Her dream had come true and she searched in vain for any sign of life. Nothing, nothing was alive in the cottage but her. She curled into a ball at the foot of granny's rocker. The old woman's head was thrown back in her final hours. Her sleeves rolled up as she was no doubt trying to nurse the suffering family until she herself gave up the fight to live.

Gone.

They were all gone. She felt a loneliness she had never felt before move and shift inside her as the wind howled. Only the howling wasn't the wind at all, but wolves outside her door.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**~ Present Day ~**

~ Sarah wasn't a fan of the rustic charm of small town America. The small town of Temple was a picture perfect example of why she lived in the big city. It was everything she disliked about the past and she hated how people were constantly trying to tell her how good everything was 'back then'.

Back then? Spotty mail, no electricity or indoor plumbing? No phones or internet service. It must have been a nightmare to live back in the good old days. Not to mention the never ending manual labor that went into something simple like doing the laundry.

No, Sarah had no desire to visit small towns and their cozy bed and breakfasts. She didn't think the square with it's three story court house was impressive and she hated the long drive she had to take just to arrive at Doctor Barn's little museum.

What kind of a person didn't have a Facebook page or web sight adverting his museum? Even if the displays were small and the story behind them just a tiny chapter in history. It was worthy enough that the town of Temple made a small museum for it.

Doctor Barn refused to talk to her over the phone for her article. Insisting she drive to the museum and see for herself.

"Once you're in the presence of the black bell, my dear." he said happily. "You'll see it was worth the drive."

Sarah doubted it.

~ Her editor had sent her on this assignment to give her a nice historical puff piece. Something the subscribers would like to learn about the flu pandemic of 1919 and 20. Sarah, admittedly wasn't an avid history buff and had to google the stupid thing as soon as she left his office.

Turned out a lot of people died of something as common as the flu back then. A thing she caught almost every year and manage to shake off. How backwards was it? To die of something like the flu?

She turned her beat up Chevy Caprice, the best car she could afford on her salary, into Temple square. So called, because the large gothic style court house stood at it's center and shops and other business were built up around it.

American flags were proudly on display, along with a faded mural on a brick wall asking people to buy bonds and stop Hitler.

She had to smile at the worn mural and looked for the Emery museum. Doctor Barn had said it was on Washington street and the conner of Jefferson. If you hit MLK boulevard, you've gone too far.

'_Jez_,' she thought as she looked of the Rockwell like setting. '_Could this place be anymore American?_'

She saw the Emery museum right away and understood why it was easy to miss. It was squeezed in between a modern jewelry shop and a run down hardware store that looked permanently closed.

It appeared to have been a normal shop at one time. The city council, after many angry residents of Emery were forced from their homes, created it to keep their history in tact.

Sarah figured the city council had failed in that regard. She had a hard job finding anything about Emery. Aside from the fact it was flooded and the valley made into a lake during the Great Depression. Apart of the civil works project that created electricity to the people of Temple and other counties.

What remained of Emery back then, only a few hundred or so residents, were bought out and told to move. Almost all of them moving right here to Temple where conditions were better.

Sarah rolled her eyes and thought this town could still be in the depression and no one could tell.

The museum looked closed like the hardware store next to it. She looked into the dusty, dark windows and tried to pick out any movement inside.

The windows were dirty and some of them covered in newspaper.

For a museum about a whole town, it looked forgotten and neglected. Not even ghosts stirred inside.

"You must be Sarah!" came a happy, booming voice and she screamed and turned her hands grabbing her purse and fearing she might be mugged even in a place like this.

Her heart was racing as a large, balding man with a ready smile beamed down at her.

He was holding a lunch pail, thermos and the days newspaper. Another throw back to another time.

"I'm Henry Barn!" he said as he fumbled in his pocket for his set of keys.

She tried to make her heart stop it's wild jumping as she watched this tall, fat man search for keys to his neglected museum.

"You are Sarah, from the paper, right?" he asked.

"Yes." she sighed. "Only, it's not a paper exactly. More of an internet news program."

"Oh? On the television?" he asked as he finally found his keys and forced the aged wooden door open.

"No. The internet." she said angrily. "Our camera people... they talk a little about the stories and then we provide a link to the rest of the story with more detail. It's more efficient than watching the news."

She tried to explain to him, but it was clear he wasn't listening.

"My wife Penny and I watch the news every evening before supper. I'll have to watch out for you. What station are you on?" he said as he walked behind a dusty counter top and placed his lunch pail and thermos on the glass display.

Immediately, Sarah was seized with something. An odd feeling that she was in a church or very strict library where sacred things were held.

The museum was set up like someone's house. There was an old fashioned iron range. A stand up piano. Even a forest green couch set. All of these items kept behind velvet ropes and were for looking at only.

She let her eyes wander over the items in a display case as Doctor Barn turned on the lights and started talking about the news caster and how the weather man was never right.

In the glass cases, there were books and photographs. The people in them trapped in their sepia world with women's hair pulled back tight and all of them looking nothing like movies of people back then. Their clothing dull and ill fitting compared to what she thought people dressed in the 1920's.

"Look around." doctor Barn was saying as she wandered the cluttered amusements of objects. All of them belonging to people long dead and who left behind their hair brushes, toys, shoes, dishes and more family photographs. A stunning needle work display took pride of place in one corner next to a large family picture.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said as she stopped and looked at the faces of the family. She looked that the needle work. The stitching small and neat depicting the lord's prayer and surrounded by flowers and birds.

"A. Harper?" she asked seeing the name blow and the year 1920.

"Ariadne Harper." the older man clarified. "Lost her whole family in 1919 during the first wave of the flu."

"She lived?" Sarah nodded to the date a year later.

"Yes." he said uneasily. "But that's the mystery, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when the Emery was flooded by that damn, there were a lot of protesting going on by the folks who were there. People who lived during the flu and knew things they never shared with us."

"What things?" Sarah asked but sensed once more that doctor Barn wasn't paying her any attention. He was in his own world just now.

"Wisteria Adams threw the biggest fuss of all. I like to think it was a guilty conscience that turned her around so. She wrote letters and tried to get a full out investigation done before the flooding happened and the damn went up." he said sadly.

Sarah let him talk. Let him ramble and remember.

"She didn't feel right about the lake being made in the valley like it was. Of covering up such a dreadful past. She said the bodies were never found and they were owed an honorable burial." he said.

"Bodies?" she asked in horror.

"Ariadne Harper." he said nodding to the needle work and the family picture. "She and that school teacher the town had hired. Dreadful business it was. The black bell rang many time that winter."

She had followed Doctor Barn into a large back room. There, at it's center was a large, bell. Covered in dust and sitting on the floor of the room. Never to ring again.

"See, back then, before all of your technology, people were called to church or warned of things through the bell tower. This one was kept in the church and only rung for funerals." he explained as he seemed to come out of his trance.

Sarah couldn't take her eyes off the bell either. It seemed to have some kind of pull to it. Calling and whispering to her and she shivered despite the heat of the stuffy museum.

"During 1919, the flu was so bad, the bell rang every day. It killed over 500 people. Almost a third of the entire population. Not just children and the elderly. The spanish flu came back with the boys from the trenches and killed without reason." he said darkly.

"Then, in 1920, it returned. That was when he town panicked and sealed itself off. Hoping to protect itself from the spread. Hoping, to keep the wolves away." he said as Sarah could faintly hear the ghost of a heavy bell ringing somewhere.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**~ Fall 1920 ~**

~ Arthur felt as if he must have slipped back in time somehow. Mr. Cobb owned a modern car, but the roads around Temple weren't paved and there was precious little about it the spoke of decent civilization.

"Town hall." Cobb nodded as the car bounded along the streets. "Built just before the Civil War." he added proudly. Hoping to impress his new friend.

Arthur didn't find Temple at all impressive after he had lived in New York for so long. Indeed, he was regretting taking this teaching post out in the middle of nowhere.

"So, we're not teaching school here?" Arthur asked over the roar of the car's loud engines. Arthur would have preferred a carriage pulled by a team of donkeys over the questionable driving of Mr. Cobb.

"Oh no!" Cobb said happily as they regretfully drove past the the last house in Temple and were plunged into the deep woods and winding back roads.

Arthur felt the air grow colder as the warm sunlight was blocked off by the heavy trees.

"Emery is only ten miles away but we're our own township." he explained. "The school, court house and church all are in the same building, however."

Arthur looked over at his new friend.

Mr. Cobb was a recent widower who had hired Arthur Williams, sight unseen, to come teach with him at the local school and even live in the same house as his family. It was something Arthur wasn't used to so soon after coming home from the Great War. City life had become too difficult for him and he sought a teaching post that promised peace and quite.

"So, I'm told you were in Europe." Cobb said as the car picked up speed and Arthur held tightly to the seat for fear they might crash.

"Yes." Arthur said coldly. He didn't like talking about the war. The loud shelling, the days and nights in the cold trenches and the gas. The gas that crept on silent feet to kill them.

"The house you'll be living in is really my father-in-laws home. I lost my wife, Mallory, to the flu last winter." Cobb said without invitation. "She was a teacher as well. We taught the upper classes and went to work together everyday. After she fell ill and died, I came to live with her parents. Lot of families had to do the same thing, you know, pull together."

Arthur nodded. He had been hearing about the Spanish flu for months now. It's gruesome death toll taking out entire families.

"You'll find a lot of people in Emery have lost family members to the flu. I'm telling you this now so you'll know not to bring it up. We have a lady living with us, one of my former students in fact, woke up to her whole family dead." Cobb went on as he swerved onto a rickety bridge over a healthy stream.

"Really?" Arthur said as he half paid attention and felt like he was going to be sick.

"Yes." Cobb sighed. "She's working for us now. Taking care of the house and the children."

Arthur felt his stomach want to lurch.

"Slow down. Stop the car!" he said as noise flooded his ears and he could hear in the distance... shelling.

Cobb obliged and stopped the car short.

Arthur jumped free from his seat and raced to a nearby tree. He could feel the ground shake from the bombs exploding nearby as he threw up his meager breakfast.

'_It's not real._' he told himself as he tried to take in fresh air and push away the sounds of the gun fire and men screaming.

'_It's. Not. Real._" he told himself sternly and his legs itched to run. The feel of the bombs getting closer and he could even smell gas.

"Mr. Williams?" Cobb was asking and Arthur tried to compose himself.

He stood up and spit out the last of the foulness that had come back up.

"A bit of a bad dinner last night." Arthur explained.

"I see." Cobb said and he wore a look of concern and distrust.

"I'll be fine." Arthur said with a fake smile and got back in the car.

~ Arthur was less impressed by Emery than Temple. At least Temple had the promise of civilization. Emery consisted of little more than a single street. The street was occupied with small shops that only supplied general goods and also served as homes. The largest building, the town hall at the end, was painted white and was two stories high. A feet that must have been impressive to a town like this.

"We've divided the school into four rooms upstairs." Cobb was explaining. "I have two other teachers who instruct the lower scholars. You and I will teach the older ones."

"How many students are there?" Arthur asked as he looked over the very large building.

"Only sixty in the entire school." Cobb said sadly. "The flu took so many last winter."

Arthur only nodded as Emery, with all it's limitations had a certain beauty about it. The trees around the town were large and seemed to enclose the small valley in a comforting nest. The only way out seemed to be the road Cobb had just driven them on. He could hear birds singing and cows mooing.

This place was peaceful, surely he could settle in here and sleep deep, untroubled dreams.

~ Ariadne was eating one of the apples she had liberated from a nearby tree. They were almost ripe and would be her grand project in a week. She and Philipa would make apple butter, apple cider, smoked apples, and other preserves they could sell at the first snow fall when all the world felt the fear of winter and wanted warm comfort foods in their bodies.

She would give Philipa her share of the money. All these apples would bring in a handsome bit of cash that could be used to buy new clothes and whatever else the child wanted. Ariadne knew she wouldn't have need for money after this winter.

She let out a long, contented sigh as the tangy fruit bit her tongue. A cold breeze, the memory of driving snow made her shiver slightly. But the sun was still out, and she was warm enough in her father's sweater.

She was swinging on the children's swing that was thoughtfully strung up on one of the tree branches. A delightful toy that they played with everyday and always looked like fun. She wasn't bold enough to fly on it the way young James did. Instead she let it rock her gently back and forth like she was a baby about to go to sleep.

She smiled at the thought of herself as a well loved and cared for child. Something to be swaddled and sang to. She wondered if her mother coddled her much when she was a baby. Her mother wasn't an affectionate woman, and Ariadne couldn't remember her ever giving her a hug, much less rocking her or singing her a lullaby.

She looked down at the half eaten apple, decided she wasn't hungry for it after all, and threw it into a clump of trash brush. Enjoying the luxury of throwing something away.

"Ariadne!" came Helena's cry from inside the house.

Ariadne wished she had found a better spot to escape. Helena was making soap and candles just now and scraping all the wax was hard work. Her hands still ached from the work they had done yesterday.

It wasn't cold enough yet for making soap or candles, but the root cellar was always like ice. It was the perfect place for keeping milk cold, even in summer.

Thusly, Helena wanted to get a jump on boiling soap in the iron range, pouring the molds, and setting them overnight in the cellar to harden. Then there was the horrid task of candle making. Working the wax free from the large block she bought each year and chipping away at it to fit into a double boiler. Ariadne always burned her fingers and hated the way the kitchen smelled of strong lavender and other scents for days on end.

"Coming!" Ariadne said and looked at the bright summer sky.

'_May as well make as much soap as I can. Make all the candles the old lady wants. I need to finish my book and my needle work to._' she reminded herself as she walked back to the house and secured her sweater tighter to her body. '_I wont make it another winter._'


	4. Chapter 4

4.

~ Arthur was exhausted when they arrived at Cobb's home. It was a large house that had been added onto over the years as was needed. No doubt it started off as a typical one room cabin, then had rooms built onto it. It was still cozy and well tended to, with an attractive vegetable garden and pasture full of lazy cows.

The air in the country was so different from the city. He could actually smell grass and other plants He could feel his body want to heal itself by drinking in all this good air.

He didn't even mind the foulness of the pig pen, and ignored the stench of Cobb's car as he parked it in the barn.

Instead, he was grateful he no longer smelled gun powder and things gone rotten in those awful trenches.

He liked this little house and felt he could stay here for the winter, when music reached him. Piano music was drifting from out of the open window was calling to him.

His driver, Cobb, had left him on the porch with his bag while he parked his car and Arthur wasn't sure if he should go inside without his host.

He was expected by these people, but maybe he should knock first.

The music was louder and he spied through the open window a young woman in a baggy, green sweater at a stand up piano. She was playing the simple notes of 'Scarborough Fair' her hands not practiced enough to make the keys do anything more than basic things. She didn't seem to trust herself to play with both hands yet.

The tune seemed sad and lonely as she played to a seemingly empty house. The lone notes solitary and seeming to reflect her mood.

The music saying that she was all alone without any words.

He straitened up and knocked on the door, hoping the girl would answer it, he peered in the window again, only to find she was gone. The music stopping suddenly and the front room looked as empty and deserted as if she had never been there. Had it been a ghost he had seen?

"Can I help you?" came a dull irritated voice and Arthur turned to see the small form of the young woman who had been playing.

She wrapped the green sweater, far too big for her, tightly around her petite body and glared at him suspiciously.

"I... I'm." he stumbled as he realized he must look foolish. A stranger peering into her window and showing up on her front door.

She looked at him, waiting for him to go on.

"Well, I'm Arthur." he said at last.

"Well of course you are." she said unimpressed. "What do you want, Arthur?"

"Mr. Cobb hired me." he said with relief.

"You're the new school teacher." she said at last and looked him over.

"Yes." Arthur said and hoped she would stop her inspection of him.

"Well, come inside, it's getting cold out." she said even though the sun was shinning, and it's heat made for a very fine day.

"Cobb's parking the car." Arthur offered lamely as he followed her inside the rustic country home.

It was pleasant enough. A sitting room was to the left and obviously kept only for best. That was where the piano and a green couch were placed. Arthur noticed a narrow set of stairs that lead to a sleeping loft, and the other rooms were closed off by heavy oak doors.

"We never stray from the kitchen except to sleep." the young woman explained. "It's more comfortable in the kitchen anyway."

"I'm sorry I didn't get you name." Arthur said as hefted his old traveling bag on his shoulder and followed her.

"I'm Ariadne." she said in a ghost like voice. As if her own name were just a memory and not a real person.

"Pleased to meet you." Arthur sighed and tried to catch a better look at her. But she refused to meet him in the eye and turned to open another heavy oak door.

Arthur saw instantly why the kitchen was the heart of this household.

It was the best kitchen he had ever seen.

It was clearly the original cabin of the house. The old fire place at it's center was proof of that. A large cast iron wood stove was in the back along with a new kitchen sink and water pump. In the front part of the large kitchen, stood a heavy table that looked as if it were used for all manner of work. Now, it was loaded with molds for soap making and the air was fragrant with heavy perfume.

"Sorry about the mess." Ariadne said as she went to a kettle that had started to whistle and took it off the heat. "We've got a lot of work to do before winter comes."

"I understand." Arthur said. But he didn't. he had no idea what country life was like.

He saw in one of the corners of the great kitchen, was a play area meant for small children. In front of the fire was a worn rocking chair. The kitchen wasn't only used for cooking, but for the family to spend time in.

"You're bed." she pointed to the space behind him. It was an alcove like nook that was fitted under the stairs. A double sized bed was pushed into the nook with precious little room to spare. Ariadne had made the bed with clean sheets and well stitched quilt.

"I'm to sleep in the kitchen?" he asked before he could stop himself. He wasn't sure why he expected his own room in the deep country, but he was surprised to find he was regulated to a bed under the stairs like he was Cinderella.

"James and Phillipa, the children, sleep in the loft with me. Miles and Helena have their room, and Mr. Cobb is in the small room. That leaves only one place for you." she said sadly.

He looked woefully at the lumpy mattress that was hiding under the neat quilt. Someone, this Ariadne person maybe, had thought to hang curtains over the alcove to give him some privacy while he slept, but Arthur felt it would be too much like when he was in the war and sleep wouldn't come easily.

"Don't worry." she said as if reading his mind. "This house isn't a loud one. The children go to bed early so they can be up early and milk the cows."

She was looking over him with her large critical eyes.

"By nine o'clock, everyone's in bed." she added. "And the kitchen is the warmest place in the house in winter and coolest place in summer.

"Good to hear." he sighed.

Her hand was on his shoulder with sudden, cat like grace.

"You have a popped seem." she said and ran her fingers over the frayed ends of his suit.

Arthur tried to act uncaring at the state of his clothing. His Aunt had stored his good clothing in her attic while he was away and moths had gotten to it. Eaten little holes in the fabric so he hardly had any clothing worth wearing. He was ashamed to have her see him in such raggedy clothing.

"Oh." he said mildly as she inspected the rest of his jacket.

"This won't do." she said at last. "Take your jacket off."

He stared at her as if she were kidding.

"Don't worry, I'm an excellent seamstress." she told him. Again seeming to read his mind.

Arthur did as she bade him and slipped his jacket off. In the rustic kitchen with it's homemade and decorated plates, lavender hanging from the rafters to dry and soap made from scratch, he almost looked well to do.

Ariadne looked over his coat with her large eyes that he realized were a pleasing brown. Almost like the china dolls he had seen in store windows. She looked too small and fair to be in this part of the county, which was still too wild of a place in this modern age.

He watched her as she went to the fire place mantle and took down a well used sewing box. The rocking chair by the hearth was obviously hers as she pulled it closer to the window's light and picked out a spool of black thread.

"You can use the trunk over there to keep your things." she said and didn't look up from her work. Her small hands expertly hemming shut the tear to his jacket.

"Thank you." Arthur said at last and spotted the trunk by the bed. An oil lamp was placed on top of it for night time use and as he started to unpack, he decided that this might not be such a bad place to stay after all.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

~ Ariadne seemed to take extreme issue with all of his clothing. She had helped herself to his bag as he unpacked and pulled out socks to darn, and shirts to mend and put new buttons on. Arthur was ashamed that his meager wardrobe was in such a state, but he hadn't been able to attend to better clothes so soon after coming home.

Ariadne didn't make any comments about it. She didn't scold him or give him looks for not taking better care of his clothing, but seemed to take it as a job to keep herself busy.

"You're good at that." Arthur commented as he saw the holes and seems to his suite were repaired and the stitches invisible.

He saw her smile briefly as she darned his socks. Her hands clever and quick as she wove the threads in and out to create a patch.

Arthur unpacked and looked over the few books he had brought with him. Mostly adventure books he had liked before he went to war. Books about Greek mythology and king Arthur were thrown in for fun as well.

He looked over the titles and wondered why had packed them at all. He wasn't that boy anymore. He had no interest in reading fairy tales.

"Cobb said you were in the war." Ariadne said mildly from her rocking chair.

Arthur turned and looked at her. The sun was setting and it's dying light was casting on her. Her dark hair glowing like it was on fire.

"I'd rather not talk about the war." he said and went back to looking over his juvenile reading.

"You and everyone else who was there." she said sourly. "A boy I went to school with never came back from Europe. Helena says his mother still puts his clothes out for him every morning. They never did bring his body back."

"Cobb tells me your whole family died last winter of the flu." Arthur said bitterly. He instantly regretted it. He didn't want to hurt this young woman who already looked so haunted and ghost like.

The look she gave him was of such shock, such hurt, misery and betrayal, he insatiately regretted it.

"I'm sorry." Arthur floundered.

"Your socks are done." she said and cut the thread to her sewing. She didn't look at him as she tossed the offending sock onto his bed and left him alone in the bright and cheerful kitchen.

~ Arthur took his time about unpacking the rest of his clothing. The kitchen smelled faintly of cooking things now that all the perfumed soap had a chance to dissipate.

He was used to buying soap in a store and had forgotten that some people still made it from animal lard. He looked around the kitchen and saw that there were many old fashioned things still in use. Cast iron cookware, a wood burning stove and the house was without electricity.

"You must be Mr. Williams." came a harsh voice from one of the side doors that led to a covered porch.

Arthur turned to see a woman standing in the doorway. Her toes not quite intruding into the kitchen as she glared at him with dark eyes. Her eyes weren't like Ariadne's however. Where Ariadne's were enchanting and delicate, this woman's eyes were bright and cold. Like flint or some other rough mineral pulled from the earth.

"I am." Arthur said and wondered where Cobb was.

The woman in her purple bonnet looked him over coldly.

"I'm Wisteria Adams." she said proudly. "I have two children in school."

"Oh." was all Arthur said.

"You're to be living in this house with the family?" she asked. "I assume you know all about the tragedy of Mr. Cobb's wife and of Miss. Harper."

"I've heard about the flu." Arthur said as the woman in her well mended summer coat and hateful purple bonnet looked at him critically. Her dark eyes seeming to reflect the light so that it bounced right off them.

She gave him a side ways smile.

"I don't suppose you know _all_ about young Miss. Harper." she said scathingly. "It was good of Mr. Cobb to insist she come to live with him after what she did to her family."

"What she did?" Arthur asked. Ariadne was a tiny woman who hardly looked capable of doing anything.

"They didn't die of the flu?" he asked looking at the door his hostess had escaped from.

"Oh they died of the plague alright." Wisteria said smartly. "She woke up to find them dead all around her. She had been stricken first you see; her mother and grandmother tired to nurse her back to health. The whole family fell ill after that, caught it from Miss. Harper."

"You can't blame her for the pandemic." Arthur said feeling worried for Ariadne with this sudden, hateful gossip.

"No, it's not her fault that they died." Wisteria said with that crafty smile of hers back on her face. "It's what happened after."

"What happened after?" Arthur asked feeling confused and somehow under Wisteria's spell.

"It was a days later and no one had seen the family. They found Ariadne, all alone in the woods, digging graves for her kin so they wouldn't be burned or thrown into the plague pit." Wisteria said. Her voice intoxicating and rhythmic as she held Arthur in her tale. Even now, he could picture Ariadne digging sad, little graves in a snow covered clearing in the heart of the woods. A place she was hoping no one would uncover. A place where her family would be laid to rest. Her hands bloodied, her dark hair covered in snow.

"When they found her, she was half mad." Wisteria hissed. "Wouldn't let the men take the bodies. Tried to beat them off with a shovel. If Cobb hadn't intervened, those men would have shot her the same as any rabid animal.

Arthur felt his world shift slightly at the image of Ariadne, defending the dead bodies of her family in the snow. Of men trying to stop her. Of a grief so powerful, she was helpless to it, and crazed within it.

"Mrs. Adams!" came a strained voice from the porch and Wisteria looked frightened for a moment as Mr. Cobb came up behind her and tipped his hat to her.

"Here to buy soap and candles?" he asked. "I'm afraid they won't be ready for a few days."

"Just here to meet the new edition to the staff." Wisteria said hatefully as she shrank away from Cobb and skirted off the porch. "I am trusting he won't be a bad influence on our children. I won't tolerate any talk of the war or politics in front of the girls."

"Wouldn't think of it, Mrs. Adams!" Cobb shouted to her as Wisteria quickly left them and began a brisk walk off the farm.

Arthur was still pondering all that the strange woman had said when he saw Cobb looking at him from the doorway.

"I see you've meet our local instigator." he sighed. "Although she's not as bad as our town spinster, Miss. Brown."

"She's interesting." Arthur muttered.

"Yes." Cobb sighed. "Helena won't let that woman in the house. They had a falling out years ago over something silly. Now, she only comes to buy soap and candles and see if Miss Harper hasn't killed us all in our sleep."

"I've met Miss. Harper." Arthur sighed. "She mended my jacket."

"Yes, she does that." Cobb laughed and walked into the kitchen. "She showed you where you're to sleep I suppose?"

Arthur nodded.

"Don't worry, the kitchen is very nice." Cobb added.

"Mrs. Adams was saying something about-"

Arthur didn't have a chance to finish because two children burst into the kitchen, one of them covered in mud and his clothing, although not Sunday best, was so dirty, it might never come clean.

I tried to stop him!" the girl with light blond hair cried.

"Arthur, these are my children." Cobb said with a smile as the young ones looked over the stranger in their home with wide eyed wonder.

"Mr. Williams is to be your new teacher." Cobb whispered to his daughter.

"James!" came an sharp call from the door that lead into the main house.

They all startled as the tone suggested they were in trouble and saw Ariadne, her green sweater hanging loosely on her body now, and her face pulled down in disbelief.

"We just gave you a washing the day before yesterday!" she cried at the little boy who was so dirty, it was hard to tell what he really looked like.

"I don't need another bath!" James said and tried to pull away from Cobb's hand.

"It's a good thing I put a kettle to boil." she sighed and stormed past them to pull a large tin tub from under the table.

"Take your clothes off!" she scolded as his older sister laughed.

"Miss. Harper, I told him not to play in the mud." she said.

"No doubt digging for worms." Ariadne added as Cobb and Arthur exchanged quick smiles and the boy was dragged to the other side of the hearth for his bath. Ariadne quickly put up a nicely painted privacy screen as the little boy bemoaned his fate of having to wash.

Somehow, it didn't strike Arthur as odd that the family washed themselves in this large kitchen with little more that a homemade canvas stretched over a wood frame to conceal them. He had grown up with a bathroom to use, but the war had taught him how precious those things were, and how easily they could be gone.

Besides, it was a comfortable room to have a warm bath.

"Phillipa, take those trays down to the root cellar." Ariadne ordered the girl as Arthur watched her pour a bucket of water in the tin tub while James undressed.

Cobb helped his daughter in her task of carefully stacking the soap trays and balancing them as they walked.

Arthur was now unsure of what to do, with James howling that the water was too hot and that Ariadne scrubbed too hard, so close by.

"Miss Harper? Do you need me to do anything?" he asked feeling useless in a family that seemed to keep busy.

"You can set the table, Mr. Williams." she called back as James insisted he was clean enough. "We have seven people." she added.

He nodded and tried not to smile as Ariadne scolded the boy like an older sister would.

"I'm clean enough!" James said as she told him how he just made more washing for her to do.

"You're clean, when I saw you're clean." Ariadne said. "Now, keep close to the fire till you're dried off. Don't want you to catch your death."


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ Arthur quickly learned about the social nature of this family over the dinner table.

Miles, was a retired school teacher who had once meet Teddy Roosevelt on a hunting trip. The senior member of the household had traveled the world as a boy and washed up in America when he was in his late thirties. He married Helena, a still beautiful woman from a family of eight sisters.

They had married and bought the cabin they now lived in. Adding on to it as time wore on.

"She could cook, clean, sew and managed to make our gardens the envy of the county." Miles had teased.

Arthur could only listen as he ate the pot roast that had been so tender, he didn't even need a knife to cut into the meat.

Miles and Helena had only one child who survived to adulthood. Mallory, who married Mr. Cobb and who was James and Phillipa's mother. Arthur was quick to notice that no one mentioned how she had died. The two children perking up in interest at the talk of their mother. James even looking around to see if she was in the room.

Cobb was a school teacher, young and green, when he came to live with the family and teach at the school.

"I intended to move on after I'd gained some teaching experience." Cobb said. "But love is funny."

Arthur noticed the Cob's eyes flickered toward Ariadne as he said this. The young woman in her baggy green sweater not looking at anyone as she ate slowly.

A strange jealousy brewed in his stomach at the idea of Cobb having feelings for Ariadne. He wasn't sure why. They had most likely known each other for years and it was perfectly acceptable for them to be together now that they were both unattached. But still, Arthur looked over the young woman with the dark eyes and troubled past, how she seemed as breakable as china and how he didn't want her to fracture anymore.

"So the children were born and we were overjoyed." Helena was saying as she pushed more food onto everyone's plates.

He tried to wave away the third helping and felt entirely over stuffed as the women gathered the plates to wash and the men, kings at their table, sat and talked politics.

Arthur couldn't help but catch glimpses of Ariadne as she and Helena went about their work of washing plates. Their talk happy and as the girl, Philipa was enlisted to dry.

For his own place in the household, Arthur felt it was better to keep quite and study the family dynamic more. Miles was gentle and calm when he talked about world events. The former teacher wanting to let time take time on the issues. Cobb was more passionate about things and still had the eagerness of a young man coupled with the hindsight of age.

Arthur had neither. Since the war... the trenches and the gas, he hadn't care about anything except if he was fed, if his feet were dry and if he slept well. Those things, were all that mattered to him.

"James, it's almost time for bed." Ariadne was saying and came to the kitchen table with cups of hot tea for the men.

She nodded to Arthur and for a moment, he almost said something friendly back.

But she looked directly behind him and he turned to see James had been trying to open his trunk.

"James, I said it's time for bed." Ariadne chastised as the child finally opened it.

"There's stuff I want to see in here." James said. As if invalidating her protest.

"It makes no difference if you want to see it. That is Mr. Williams property, you'll leave it be." Ariadne said sharply as she crossed the room and closed the lid of the trunk.

"It's alright, Miss Harper." Arthur said softly. He was used to his things always being looked over.

"Do you have any medals from the war?" James asked eagerly.

"James." Ariadne hissed.

"A few." Arthur said feeling nervous.

"Did you kill anyone?" Phillipa asked holding a dish towel in her hands.

The whole family was looking at him now and Arthur wasn't sure how to answer. It was clear they wanted him to tell them about the war and he didn't want to say a word about it.

It was like dinner at his parents home when his family wanted to hear every gruesome detail of that life just for entertainment value.

"Mr. Williams doesn't like to talk about the war. He's a gentleman and doesn't want to upset ladies and children." Ariadne said and the silence was broken and the family politely leaned back in their chairs and looked away.

"James, it's time for you to go to bed. Phillipa, you as well. We've got a big day in the morning." she said

Arthur let out a sigh of relief as the children shrugged and went up the ladder to the sleeping loft.

"I should shove off as well." Miles said and his wife made him drink the rest of his tea. "These old bones." he added with a smile.

"We have our first day of school tomorrow." Cobb told him. "We still work on a half day with the fall harvest here. Farming community." he clarified.

"I see." Arthur said.

"So, we'll have a half empty class room on Monday, girls stay out because of the family washing." he explained. "We start at 11 o'clock and then let them out by three. Gives them more time to do chores at home."

Arthur nodded, but he didn't understand. It seemed as if he was back in time a century here in Emery.

"Good night." Cobb offered as Ariadne was doing the last bit of washing and ensuring the kitchen was clean for the morning.

"Night." Arthur said as he stood and felt the cheery kitchen was a little sadder to have it's resident's leave.

Arthur stood awkwardly in front of his bed as Ariadne was still cleaning on the other side of the kitchen. He wanted to undress, but was uncertain how to go about it with another person in the room. Even if her back was turned and she didn't care to look at him.

He turned to see her moving pots around and decided he might as well undress now when he heard her stoke the fire.

"I'll turn in myself now." she said and refused to look at him as she walked quickly out of the kitchen. "I stoked the fire, it should burn low for most of the night. If you get cold, there's another quilt on the bed's foot."

"I'll be fine. Thank you." he said and it occurred to him she was always worried about the cold. The room was warm and comfortable, but she still wore her green sweater even though it must be too warm for it.

He decided as she left him in peace and he undressed for bed that it must be a remnant of the flu and all she had endured. He had seen it many times with his fellow soldiers. Although it was never talked about, it was understood how some things, would never go away. How some scares cut too deeply and would never heal.

~ Arthur was dreaming, but whatever he was dreaming of, melted away and was forgotten as soon as the screams tore across the night.

He instantly jumped awake as the cries were like a long song of terror and sadness.

He searched his body for his knife and discovered that he wasn't in the trenches. He was back in America, in Emery and at Mr. Cobb's home.

His bed was safe and cozy and he must have just had another nightmare.

But another scream pierced the stillness and noises of others waking up and doors opening. He could hear Helena and Miles in the hallway and Cobb telling them in a sleepy voice it was alright.

Arthur snuck out of bed and peeped out the door to the hallway. The older couple was illuminated by a fat homemade candle and the shadows crept around them as crying was heard from the loft.

"Dom, you'll have to do something about Miss. Harper." Helena was saying. Her face tired and angry looking. "It's been months since that horrible business and she needs to let go of this. I would expect this from a child but not a grown woman!"

Arthur peeked though the crack in the door and saw Cobb in his night clothes and the children coming down the ladder of the sleeping loft.

"Miss. Harper is having another bad dream." James said sleepily.

"You two can go to sleep in my bed." Cobb sighed.

"Dom." Helena said angrily and let out a sigh. "Miss. Harper is a big help, but if she can't control these night fears, she'll have to go."

"She's been through a lot." Cobb was saying as another screamed ripped though the house and Arthur heard Ariadne cry for her mother. "We can't turn her away. She has nowhere else to go."

"Talk to her again." Helena said. Her once pretty face pulled down in anger.

Cobb looked up the ladder as Miles followed his wife back to bed and Arthur heard Ariadne cry and moan up in the sleeping loft.

He saw Cobb stay by the ladder until the crying and sobs subsided and went back to his own room at last. He took the candle with him and the hallway was in darkness again.

With nothing left to do, Arthur went back to bed as well and tried not to think about things that haunted Ariadne's dreams.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ Ariadne was dreaming of the winter snow and of wolves hunting her. For some reason, a strange man without a face was pulling her along a long forgotten path through the dark and terrible woods. A place that was quickly becoming indistinguishable under the light dusting of snow.

"We'll lose our way!" she cried out as the howling of the wolves was growing closer. Those filthy beasts were going to catch up to them and she was so weak already.

"We have to run!" the stranger said gruffly and pulled her to her feet.

"NO! We can't in the snow! Not in the snow!" she tried to explain. "Please!" she cried as the man left her and the wolves closed in. She was screaming as the animals attacked and all she wanted in the world was her mother. She wanted to be back in the family home with her mother cooking dinner. Her little sister playing by the fire as her and granny did the lace work for a wedding dress that would never see a wedding.

"Mother!" she cried and felt the dream world collapse and fade away as she woke up. Her heart hammering in her chest as she tried to remember where she was. That she was safely in Mr. Cobb's sleeping loft and she was alone.

She searched for the children in their bed pallets and realized she must have been crying in her sleep again. Mr. Cobb had gently told her how she had been crying and screaming most nights since her family died. That he understood why, but he couldn't have it anymore.

She pulled her knees close to her chest and tried to will herself to feel better.

'_I'm okay._' she thought. As if she could trick her mind into not being sick anymore. '_I have a roof over my head, I'm healthy. I've a lot to be thankful for_.'

She tried to list all the things that should make her happy, but couldn't do it. Her list of things she had lost was so much longer.

She curled into a ball on her single bed pallet and fell asleep again.

~ Arthur woke to the sounds of someone making a riotous noise in the kitchen. Pans were being put onto a stove top. Orders were being given to milk cows and get eggs from the root cellar.

He rolled over as he felt the sun wasn't even out yet.

"Mr. Williams?" Ariadne call came to greet him from behind the curtain.

He ignored her.

"Mr. Williams?" she called again.

"I've heated up some water for you to clean up with. It's your first day of school." she reminded him.

He sighed, realized he was in the country and life here was different. He couldn't sleep in till seven and catch a trolly to the local school. Days here started early and ended early. With all manner of work between.

He sat up and peeped out the curtain at his hostess. She was a master at working the large stove and he could smell grease cooking in one of the pans.

"Hurry up." she called out to him and he dutifully fumbled out of bed.

It was still dark outside and only a few oil lamps placed around the kitchen provided any light.

"Here." she said and guided him to the screen where James had done his washing the night before.

"Oh." Arthur said in surprise. He forgot that this was what the family had for a bath tub.

He looked back at Ariadne who was resuming her work on breakfast.

"Well, hurry up." she said as she lifted a heavy iron skillet down from the rack. Her small body very strong from all the labor she had to do.

He wanted to say a word about privacy but she said it for him.

"No one here cares to look at you. You've got the screen and the hot water won't keep. The children will be back soon so do your washing now." she ordered and poured in the tub hot water from the kettle and bucket of tepid water to mix together to make a reasonably warm bath.

Arthur had his misgivings, but what could he do? He had experienced worst ways of washing up in the war, in fact, by that standard, a cozy bath by a warm fire while breakfast was cooking was akin to heaven. But to have Ariadne so close while he bathed...

He realized she was glaring at him impatiently and he nodded and pulled the screen closed.

He quickly stripped his night clothing, threw them over the screen where she plucked them up.

"I assume you want you're suit?" she asked and he peeped through the crack in the screen to see her neatly fold his night shirt and bring out the suit she had mended.

"Yes." he said as he tested the warm water and tried to fit his too long body into the small tin tub.

The soap was homemade and lathered quicker than soap from a shop. No wonder people were clamoring to buy it. He washed his hair and body as quick as he could when he realized his manners had escaped him.

"Thank you, by the way." he said in the general direction of where he thought Ariadne was. The screen enclosing him by the fire so he could only hear her.

"For what?" her cross voice came through the screen.

"For mending my suit." he explained. "I had it in storage while I was away in Europe and moths had been at all my clothing."

"Oh." she said and he could tell she was uncomfortable. He could also smell bacon cooking and his stomach rumbled sharply.

"You do a lot for the family here?" he asked as he rinsed off the perfumed soap and felt much better.

"I try to earn my keep." he heard her sigh. "It's not easy to run a home. That's why I came to live with the family after the illness to mine. I couldn't have lived in the cottage alone."

"I heard you having a nightmare last night." he said boldly.

There was silence that greeted him. He could see her, in his own mind, her body tense and still like a frightened rabbit.

"Oh?" was all she said.

"Yes." he said calmly and stood out of the small tub and used one of the clean, dry towels she had laid out for him. "You know, a lot of soldiers, they have the same kind of trouble. Bad dreams." he clarified.

She said nothing.

"They have bad thoughts to." he added. Hoping something would register and she would see him as a confidant. "It's nothing to feel ashamed of." he tried to explain.

"I'm not ashamed, Mr. Williams." she said curtly. "Your suit is on the chair.

Arthur had no time to say anything else as a cold morning wind ripped though the kitchen and he was glad to be so close to the fire. He hurriedly dressed as James and Phillipa stormed in with fresh eggs and cold milk from the spring house.

"Very nice, Phillipa!" Ariadne proclaimed. "We'll have that apple butter with our bread this morning."

Arthur was glad he had bathed and dressed with only Ariadne in the room as the kitchen suddenly burst to life with Miles and his wife talking about plans for the soap and candles. Of Cobb coming in asking about when the horse would need a new shoeing. The children were helpful in setting the table as Ariadne finished coking and Arthur emptied his own bathwater.

To his delight, there was bacon, fresh sausages, toast, scrabbled eggs, jam and hot coffee. Ariadne handed him a cup as though she read his mind and he felt his stomach roar for the food at the table.

"We normally have a large meal to sure us up for the day." Miles explained as he sat down and the family started to eat.

Arthur noticed right away that Ariadne wasn't eating with them. She was boiling more water for something.

"Miss. Harper?" he called out before eating. "Come and join us?"

The family looked at him in surprise.

"She's fine." Helena said with a tired expression. "She can eat later."

Arthur had never heard of such a thing. Ariadne had worked so hard to make breakfast and she had to eat her meal cold and whenever she got the chance?

He was about to argue when Miles asked if his water was ready.

"Almost." Ariadne called back and to his horror, Arthur saw the old man, coffee cup in hand go behind the screen where Ariadne had fresh bathwater for him.

~ "I must say, the country will get some getting use to." Arthur admitted as Cobb drove them and Philipa to school that morning.

"You can't mean my father-in-law taking his breakfast in the bath?" Cobb laughed.

"Now that you mention it." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"The old man has always been like that." Cobb said. "Helena spoiled him when they were first married and now he drinks his coffee in the bath in front of the fire."

Arthur had to laugh that even in the country, Miles lived like a king.

~ Emery slowly awoke to a fresh new day and Arthur saw it wasn't as empty as he thought. There were farmers out in their fields and people walking the roads. Even children walking to school.

"Daddy, when will it snow?" Philipa asked as they arrived at the large town hall. It's school room on the second story.

"Not for a few months." Cobb said wisely. "Why?"

"Miss Harper is afraid of the snow." she said.

"What makes you say that?" Cobb asked.

"She kept saying: not in the snow, not in the snow, last night." the little girl explained.

~ Arthur was impressed by the town hall. It was well built and the class rooms were furnished better than any city school. The desks were roughly put together, but they were clean and well used.

The students who came in were mostly boys and a few girls. On Mondays, Cobb had explained, the girls stayed at home to help with the washing. A job too large for their mothers to do alone.

So, he was forced to educate a group of farm boys who seemed so disinterested in school, he wondered why he even bothered.

~ "It'll be better tomorrow." Cobb promised as the two men packed up to go back home.

"This is a very nice building." Arthur noted as means of making conversation.

"Yes, they use it for everything. Reverend Thomas gives a very humble sermon every Sunday and Miss Brown teaches bible studies for the true believers.

"I think you mentioned Miss Brown." Arthur said.

Cobb looked troubled for a moment.

"It's best not to be around or listen to her. She's a bit hysterical when it comes to religion." Cobb admitted.

"I was in a war, Cobb." Arthur sighed. "I know all about getting good with God quickly."

"Not like Miss Brown is." Cobb warned. "Or as some of her followers call her, Sister Brown."

Arthur looked at her curiously.

"I suppose you'll hear it sooner or later, so it's best you hear it from me." Cobb sighed. "Ariadne... Miss Harper, was the first one to be struck with the flu last year. When she survived and so many didn't, Sister Brown, in all her Christian love, wanted to have her hanged as a witch."


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ "You can't be serious." Arthur laughed as he and Cobb walked the long street with it's depressingly small shops and it's gloomy townsfolk.

He saw women hiding behind windows and eyeing the pair of them suspiciously. As if the arrival of a new school teacher was the first wave an invasion.

Cobb's face looked slightly haunted and troubled as they walked in silence for a while. Phillipa had run ahead of them to play with some friends.

"She became ill in late October. Almost a year ago now." Cobb explained with difficulty. "No one thought anything of it. People get sick, they get better or they die. But Ariadne seemed to fall ill so quickly, it scared a lot of people. After that, the flu spread like wildfire. There wasn't a home in this town that wasn't affected. Not a single family that didn't lose someone in the space of a few weeks."

Arthur watched as Cobb turned and pointed at the town hall. It's bell tower half hidden in the rafters.

"When the town hall was built, the preacher at the time had a special bell installed to announce funerals. He believed the bells to call people to worship as to announce a wedding or christening, should not be used for the somber occasion of death. So, he installed a heavy bell that was painted black." he said.

Cobb's face looked lost in painful memories.

"During the flu, not a day passed when the black bell didn't ring. We could hear it from our house and that was how we knew that one of our neighbors, one of our friends, had died. Sometimes it would ring four or five times a day. It was madness, we thought the world was coming to an end. Phillipa was sick and so was James. We thought we would lose both of them, but my wife ended up a victim." Cobb said.

Arthur wanted to ask about Ariadne, but sensed this was Cobb's moment. His memories that he had such difficulty sharing.

"We had to put her in a mass grave a mile outside the cemetery. The doctor was worried that the flu might spread if the bodies were buried too close to town. Funny thing, he's in that field to now." Cobb said with a bitter laugh. "Died of the flu not long after it started to die down."

"So, Ariadne survived and her family was wiped out." Arthur said rationally.

Cobb nodded but his face still looked troubled.

"Mal and I, we hadn't heard from any of the Harper family in days. They were close to the community. Ariadne was even going to marry Doctor Fisher's son, Robert, in the spring. So, when we hadn't heard from them, I took a group of men to the cottage thinking they were all dead." he explained.

"And?"

"Nothing." Cobb said sadly. "It was empty. We thought the family might have fled. Tried to walk out of through the woods, but it was snowing and you'd have to be crazy to attempt to walk out of these woods in the snow. We looked for them and found Ariadne in a clearing not far from the cottage. She was trying to dig graves for her family." Cobb's voice broke slightly at the memory. "Her hands were bloody because the ground was too hard, but she wanted to burry them."

Arthur waited for Cobb to go on.

"She was half mad, Mr. Williams. I'd never seen her like that before. It was like she was possessed with grief and had become a wild beast."

He let out a long sigh.

"Anyway, that's how the gossip started. Word got out about how we found Ariadne. How she was so traumatized that she couldn't stop screaming most nights about the dead coming for her. How she refused to go to church. Sister Brown is convinced she had taken the bodies to the woods to perform some kind of witchcraft on them. Utter nonsense, but people tend to believe crazy things when they're scared." he explained.

"Why did you and your wife take her in? If everyone thought she was the cause of the flu?" Arthur asked.

"What was the alternative?" Cobb asked sadly. "Let her stay in that cottage alone? Try to work the land to make a living? She changed after her family died. She didn't want to see Robert Fisher anymore; broke off the engagement. She just wasn't the same girl. I don't believe in Sister Brown's gossip."

Arthur said nothing as the two men turned and looked back at it's large town hall. Arthur picturing a town in chaos from a plague with no escape and panic that sought a scape goat in an innocent young woman.

~ Ariadne laid out her wedding dress on the green sofa. Arthur and Cobb had left hours ago and wouldn't be back for hours still. She had finished all her the washing and the clothes were hanging out to dry. She had let everything soak the night before in soda crystals and that made all the scrubbing easier. She was done with the washing for six people after only six hours. She'd swept the floors, started canning some tomatoes and had done the rest of the house work. No she had only the dinner to make. But she had time yet.

She ran a hand over the perfectly done lace work her grandmother had made just before she died. The dress was a little old fashioned if compared to some to the girls in the magazines, but it was hers and fit beautifully.

She quickly shed her work dress and let her hair fall down in nice waves around her face. Her wedding dress was good and heavy as she picked it up and carefully pulled it on.

Her mother and grandmother had worked hard on this dress and the quality of their work showed in the expertly cut collar and invisible hem. It's lace work making the dress not frilly, but more elegant than any other dress.

She loved the way the expensive cream colored fabric fell over her body and past her ankles. How the bodice fit just right. She felt beautiful and loved in this dress. Just like a bride was supposed to feel.

She made sure her hair was smooth and her face clean before she took part in her favorite game.

Carefully, she sat on the plush green couch. It was a piece of furniture that was used only for special company and she knew she mustn't be caught, but it was perfect for her to use now.

She laid her body out on the sofa. Her small frame fitting neatly with the crown of her head touching one armrest and her feet touching the other. She felt herself relax as as she imagined herself in her own coffin. How peaceful and safe it must feel to be in your coffin. Not scary at all, but protected from the world. She didn't even mind the idea of being buried. The ground would be another layer of safety. In the real world, she was horribly exposed and there was nothing to protect her.

But in her own grave, married to her grief, she would be at peace. She would sleep a sleep that was free of nightmares and know that she was forever protected.

She feared this coming winter. Feared the snow that seemed to have teeth and would cut and bite her. Her body was so weak, that she knew she couldn't survive the chill and snow fall. She couldn't even stand the thought of the snow and it's bitter cold.

But she wouldn't think of that now. She was safe for now in her pretend coffin. She would be buried in her wedding dress. It was the finest piece of clothing she owned and naturally she would be buried in it.

She felt a warm happiness grow inside her at the idea of herself in her own coffin. Her frail body swaddled in it's warmth as she fell asleep.

~ Arthur and Cobb were just about to head home when they saw a worried man cross the street from the bakery to the town hall.

"Reverend, I wanted you to meet our new school teacher." Cobb was saying.

"No time for that, son." the older mad in the black jacket said sternly. Arthur felt a solemnness fall over them as the reverend looked worriedly around him.

"What's happened?" Cobb asked.

"Margret Wilkie, is ill." he said "She was feeling poorly last night at supper and she's even worse today. Fever, chills. Just like before."

"What?" Cobb breathed. "I saw her at church yesterday morning. She was fine."

"It's the flu." the reverend said trying not panic them. "It's back."


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ "We can't say it's the flu." Miles said. "Children get sick all the time."

Helena wasn't so sat, sour as ever, across from her husband and saw the bad in everything.

"The reverend has presided over many death beds last year and he was convinced it was the sickness." she hissed angrily at the kitchen table.

Arthur said nothing and chanced a look at Ariadne.

She had said nothing when they came home to tell the family the worrisome news. A frightened hush fell over them, Helena and Miles even drawing the shades. As if that would protect them from the blight of the sickness.

"I agree." Cobb sighed. "We can't jump to conclusions. The flu is gone. It did it's damage last year. Those that got sick, some of them got better. The rest of us were spared."

"You make it sound like Moses and his angel of death." Miles said pitifully.

Arthur didn't like talk of religion and he tried not to let anyone notice he was stealing glances at Ariadne again. His eyes seeming to have a mind of their own and sought the comfort of seeing her dark hair pulled up in a braid, tendrils falling down over her face. Her green sweater, far too large for her, hiding her small frame. She was by the cook stove. Their simple dinner cooking as she took out some more jam for them to eat.

He had come home to see her hard at work in the cherry kitchen. The room smelling like stewed tomatoes and she had at least ten large glass jars full to sustain them for winter.

He had offered to help her take them to the root cellar where a dizzying array of food was canned and preserved. Ariadne refusing as she easily lifted and carried a crate of canned foods downstairs. He wondered how hard she had to work to keep the house so clean and comfortable. To already have the wash done and on the line to dry when they got home. To have time to can, sew, clean and cook dinner.

Now, her face looked pinched and worried. Talk of the flu had come back and she was no doubt remembering those horrible days of death and panic that had caused her to labor in this house instead of her own.

"Let's not talk of this anymore tonight." Miles said at last. Ariadne had handed out plates of their dinner and they sate in silence. Arthur not missing the times Cobb would look at Ariadne with worry for her. He felt his own heart burn with a strange jealousy he could not understand.

~ Ariadne woke from another strange dream. This one had her locked in the house as the dead clamored to get in. Their eyes were blood shot and angry as they scratched at doors and howled for her to come out.

She woke up gasping for air and saw the children were nestled in their bed pallets asleep. At least she didn't wake them up this time with her night terrors.

She peered out the window and saw the moon was far away in the sky. That meant that it was well past might night.

She crept down the ladder and tried not to make a noise as something told her to go outside. She could hear a fierce wind kicking the tree branches against the house and they sounded like long fingers reaching for something.

She clutched her father's sweater tighter and could hear the chill in the wind outside. She was grateful the house was so well insulated that it protected her from the cold. But, she knew there was no escaping it. Sooner or later, it would catch her and drag her down.

She looked over at Mr. Williams asleep in his bed under the stairs. His body relaxed and comfortable in dreams as the first blast of winter finally found them. His face looked so much younger in sleep. Normally, when he was awake, he looked angry and annoyed at something. She suspected he wasn't used to the country and, war or no war, he didn't like how rustic things were here. He would no doubt want to go back to wherever he had come from before too much longer.

She slipped past him and out the back door. Years ago, Miles had built a covered porch that had served the family well. Now, she took in the view of tall trees being stripped of their leaves as the cold wind almost took her breath away.

'_It's coming back_.' she thought worriedly and felt her stomach clench as though it were a fist.

She sat on the porch and took in the feel of the air. How cold and clean it was. How she could smell the corn that had been allowed to fall to seed. How the summer's garden had turned to soil to sand and had to be moved. How the cows and chickens smelled and there, on the wind... pine trees.

"Are you insane? Get back inside. You'll catch your death." a stony voice said from behind her.

Ariadne tuned and saw Mr. Williams standing there. His newly mended jacket wrapped over his night gown as he wrapped his long arms around his body for protection.

"It's going to snow tomorrow." she warned him and sat down on the porch's edge.

She ignored him as he watched her.

"I thought you hated the cold." he said at last as she felt another ice like breeze lick her bare feet.

"I don't' hate it." she said calmly. "I respect it."

"It's a reasonable thing to respect." he agreed and sat next to her on the porch.

"Do you think that little girl will die?" She asked and looked at Mr. Williams for the first time in the eye. It felt oddly intimate to meet his eyes. She never realized they weren't a dark brown at all, but a very light brown. Like honey that has parts of the comb still it. Honey that promised to be sweet and thick and taste like warm summers from childhood.

"I don't know." he sighed.

She bit back a wave of fear.

"The first time... it was so awful. We had lost so many." she said.

"Cobb told me. About the black bell." he said soberly.

"We could hear it from this house. Miles insisted we lock ourselves in all day. That's why we've stocked up so well for winter. We had to kill two hogs last year because of the flu. We even had a cow stolen from us." she said.

"Well, at least Mr. Cobb has looked after you." Arthur said after they watched the wind kick the tree tops for a while. "I'm sure he's a fine man." he added.

"He is a fine man." Ariadne agreed. "But he looks after me out of pity, nothing more. His mother and father in law allow me to stay because they're old and I can work when they can't."

She heard him give a dry, forced chuckle.

"I gathered that." he admitted as she felt the tenseness in her body ease up. "Still, it's beautiful country." he said.

"You know where I would love to live?" she said quickly, not sure why she was so ready to confide in this stranger.

"Where?" he asked.

"I'd like to go to California. To live close to the ocean. I've read it's a warm ocean and the sun is always out. I've heard you can pick fruit right off the trees and their so ripe, they make you're mouth water at first taste. I'd like to live in a small yellow house with white shutters and ride a bicycle to my job at a bakery. I like to bake." she said and felt foolish suddenly. She was sure Arthur would laugh at her for having such foolish dreams. He would tell her to stop acting like a child and go back to sleep. She was already where she belonged and she had better accept it. The need to want to be in her own coffin took hold of her again and she rubber her arms to keep warm.

"I think that's a very nice idea." he said at last.

She sensed him looking at her and shied away from him. She could always feel him looking at her. Ever since he came to this house.

"A place where there is no snow." she said to herself. "A place where the people aren't hardened from the work and so much death. A place where I would be free."

"When I was in the war, I always had someone to look out for me." he said with difficulty. "I always had a friend who made sure I came back alive. Someone to make sure I was okay and in return, I looked after him."

She turned and tried to determine what he was saying.

"I think we could look after each other till the winter passes." he said carefully. "Just make sure the other is alright."

"Like an alliance?" she laughed and felt the hated winter air hit them both.

"Exactly." he said eagerly.

She had never heard of such a thing. Family looked after each other, but they were blood. Ariadne had no family left, but neither did Arthur.

He stood, held out his had to help her stand.

She took his and felt how strong and capable his hand was as he pulled her to her feet.

"Let's go back inside before we freeze." he said with that uncomfortable laugh he had.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ There was enough to feed an army for months in the cold root cellar. New shelves had been fitted from floor to celling and glass jars stuffed into every available space. All of them neatly labeled in fine, cursive script.

Candles, hardening in their molds were spread out on the work table along with tray after tray of homemade soap.

Arthur leaned over and saw jar after jar of pickles with wild dill weed infused in the mix. He saw blueberries and other fruit that were also well canned for winter.

"Impressive." he nodded to Ariadne as she was looking for a jar of jam for them to eat.

"I'm going to start making apple cider; soon as out apple crop is ready." she sighed.

"It's always nice to feel protected against the winter with plenty of food." he told her as the feeble light of the oil lantern cast gloomy shadows over the well prepared cellar.

It was bone cold here. The floor was like ice and he understood how all this food was so well kept.

"When the flu came, the panic made everyone careless about running their farms and their stock." she explained as she climbed up the rickety stairs. He followed after her into the warm kitchen again. Grateful to be out of the cold cellar.

"Whole families were wiped out. Animals left to starve. It wasn't pretty. No one was really prepared to have so many die."

He wanted to help her fix their light meal, but she was too fast in her work. Her body moving gracefully in the quest for bread and fresh milk for them to drink. All Arthur could think to do was stoke the fire some more. The flames bursting hot and wonderful in the old hearth.

The soft smile on her face was all the reward he needed as she brought out a large glass pitcher of milk that had been sitting in cold well water overnight. She placed the bread from yesterday on the table with the jam and a large knife.

He quickly took his slice she cut for him, skewered it on a fire place poker and started to lightly toast it.

"Tell me about the war." she said as she sat in her rocking chair. Her face softer now with the fire light playing over it. She didn't seem so worried or tense now that they were safely indoors with the fire, warm food and each other.

"It wasn't what I expected when I joined up." he said after a long time. He found he was staring at the flames as if lost in time.

"A lot of cold meals, bad weather. I caught the pneumonia twice and took some wounds that never healed right." he said sadly.

Well he remembered the scars on his chest and legs from where he had been shot and fell. His body left behind in the mud for days till he was discovered by a man and his cart horse. The old man who was digging and robbing from the dead had found him, barely alive. Why he had pulled through, he had no idea.

Naturally, he didn't breath a word of this to anyone. It was an odd feeling to live, when so many others around you had perished.

"I just... it's best to think it happened to someone else." he said at last as his slice of bread was toasted and he gave it to Ariadne.

She grinned slightly as though he had given her an unexpected present and was generous with the blueberry jam she put on it.

"I learned to keep my socks and feet dry. Eat when I could, sleep when I could; never take anything for granted because tomorrow isn't promised."

He turned to her, hoping to see that lovely smile that made her face look like a fairy tale princess, but she looked sadder somehow.

"You must think we're spoiled and easily frightened." she said at last. "After all you've seen and had to do."

"No, not at all." he argued. "Seeing you're loved ones leave this life. Knowing you'll never be with them again, that you're alone. I can't imagine the pain."

"I haven't missed them as much as I thought I would." she confessed. "I just, I guess I haven't thought about it too much. Like it's not real at all."

He opened his mouth to tell her about shell shock. How he felt that the war years, the trenches, the gas, the bombs and the death, had somehow not been real at all. That it was all an elaborately long dream. That he would wake up and think himself a fool for dreaming it at all.

"One day." he said with difficulty. "One day it will become real. You'll feel it and you'll be able to move past it. For now, it's too close to understand."

"No, I understand it." she bit back. Her dark eyes, so enchanting, were full of anger. "I understand how Doctor Fisher had my family buried in the plague pit two miles out of town. How I don't even know where to grieve for my family because I was so weak from digging their graves so that wouldn't happen to them. How Sister Brown was hissing at me from my bed each day that I had caused the sickness. These people became inhuman, Arthur. And, if the flu has come back, it will start all over again."

"Is that why you didn't marry Doctor Fisher's son?" Arthur asked.

He could scarcely believe the words had left his mouth.

She sat back in clear surprise. her face looking as if he had struck her.

"I didn't marry Robert." she said calmly. "Because all of them had changed during the sickness."

Her voice was calm and whispered. Speaking of a trembling hatred that was buried deep inside her.

"It might not be the sickness." he said soothingly. As though he were talking to one of his fellow comrades in arms who was growing scared of the shelling and the fighting.

"What if we're all killed this time?" she said and her voice turned into a sob. "We came so close. Children died in their mothers arms and Sister Brown was saying it was the devil come home to roost. What if there's a panic?"

"Ariadne." he said and took her hand in his.

Her eyes seemed to glitter in the fire light with her tears brimming there.

"If there is a panic, you and I, we'll leave. We'll leave together." he said with raw conviction.

She nodded and he could see her swallow her fears and try to make her face be brave again.

"We'll just leave." he promised agin.

~ The dawn came. It's hateful sun held no warmth in it as a light dusting of snow skittered about.

"We can pick the apples, I think." Ariadne said cheerfully as she readied the breakfast for the family at the table.

"My, we're in a cherry mood." Miles teased her.

"I like apples." Ariadne said. "And think of the money it will bring. Phillipa can have a new dress and shoes with what we can make from selling them."

The little girl looked delighted.

"I want a red dress! I saw a lady in a magazine with a red dress and she looked so lovely!" the girl said eagerly.

"Now, what would Sister Brown say to that?" Helena teased.

"She won't say a thing, the old bat." Miles said bitterly. "She causes more trouble than anyone should."

Arthur was stealing glances at Ariadne again. He couldn't help it but watch as she cooked the bacon and eggs for them. Her face seeming free of whatever was haunting her the night before.

"It's Charlie Hewlett." Cobb said suddenly from his place at the table.

The whole family turned as saw from the window a teenage boy running across the lawn to the back porch from a large window. Apparently in a small town, everyone knew to go to the back door of Mr. Cobb's home.

"Mr. Cobb!" the teenager shouted.

"Ariadne, get the door." Miles instructed and Arthur stood instead so that his new friend wouldn't have to be torn away from her cooking for such a mundane chore of letting someone in.

"Charlie, what is it?" Cobb demanded and stood as the youth barged in out of breath.

"Little Margret Wilkie." he said and Arthur felt the tension in the family build.

"What about her?" Cobb asked.

"She died this morning." Charlie panted. "She was running a fever all night, sweating and had the chills. She had the flu, sir. Just like last year."


	11. Chapter 11

11.

~ Panic didn't start right away. The black bell rang out the day of the child's funeral, but no one except the family stirred from their homes. Fear had gripped them and made them all hold their breath.

Arthur was helping Ariadne and the children harvest apples in the fields when he heard it's strange, low tone. Almost like an ancient church ringing here in this idyllic countryside. A ring that was hardly a ring at all, but a summons to some dark invocation.

He turned to the sound of the bell as it rang out seven times and then fell quite. The stillness so deafening after the bell tolled, even the birds stopped their songs in reverence to it.

"Why seven?" he asked Ariadne as she laid out a large, white tarp on the ground. They had picked apples that had fallen on the ground first and were sorting out the good from the bad.

She was crouched on the tarp. Her small hands examining each apple to make sure it wasn't rotten.

"The little girl was seven years old. Seven years on earth, seven bells." she explained distractedly. "She lost both her parents in the flu last year. Was being cared for by an aunt."

He nodded and watched James and Phillipa come back with a basket of apples. The load being shared by the both of them. They seemed oblivious to the recent scare. They were just happy to be free of school for the day and enjoying the fun of the harvest.

They unloaded their pile and ran back into the orchid for more.

"Just one more basket!" Ariadne called back after them.

She was sorting the good from the bad, telling him how they would use the bad ones for pigs feed and other things.

"It's just one case." Arthur sighed not listening to her. "Why shut the school down?"

"Do you really think anyone would come?" she laughed at him.

He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I know it was horrible last year, but the disease probably died out. People die of the flu all the time." he said.

She nodded.

"You said yourself we have to be careful."

"I know, but shutting down the school? That's madness." he said.

"I agree."

"So, what's to be done with me? I was counting on my wages to see me through next year. If there is to be no school, then they won't pay me." he said.

She looked up at him. Her large eyes saddened.

He was about to ask her what was wrong when the children returned and helped the two of them load the good apples onto a cart and take them inside.

Arthur was appointed the task of cleaning the fruit while Ariadne dug the core out and cut them. Phillipa minded the boiling pots pull of apples and other spices while James' job was to mash the cooked result into a paste that would be canned and later cooled for sale.

Arthur found the work clean and pleasant by farm standards. There was enough to keep them all busy and not thinking about the prospect of winter.

"We can make the cider tomorrow." Ariadne sighed as the two of them were cleaning up. The children already in the basement putting the new stock away.

"I can't believe you have to work so hard for someone else to have money." Arthur said hatefully as he thought about how all that apple butter and jams they had made today would bring in money for the family, but not for Ariadne.

"They give me a place to live. Not many others were willing to after what happened." she said and pulled her apron off.

"None of which was your fault." Arthur said. "Helena and Miles should be ashamed for the way they treat you. You're not a maid."

"Of course I am." she said with a teasing smile. "I was a maid in my parents house to. It was far more work there than here. We had a lot of live stock to tend to, and at night, mother and granny would do lace work to sell. They made their best lace work for my wedding dress." she seemed to have sensed she said too much and lost her courage at the word 'dress'.

Arthur turned to her and she shied away from his gaze.

Their moment was broken when Cobb and his in-laws came into the kitchen.

"What news from town?" Helena was saying. The woman had been in her nice sitting room sewing all day while Ariadne labored.

"There will be a meeting tonight." Cobb sighed and took his seat as Ariadne sat a kettle to boil.

"Whatever for?" Helena gasped desperately. "It's only one death so far. No reason to worry."

"It seems more people are sick." Miles said sadly. "Pearly Wilkie and her grown son. That's the people who were around the child the most. The reverend is urging calm, but people are already scared."

"Maybe we should go. Drive to Temple and take the train." Helena hissed.

"And go where?" Cobb asked. "Where could we go that would be any safer?"

"Dom is right." Miles said. "We're safer in our own home until it blows over."

"And what about next year? And then the next? You mark my words, Miles, in a few more winters, there won't be an Emerson anymore. This curse will wipe us off the map!" Helena said bitterly.

At the word curse, Arthur felt everyone gasp slightly and look to Ariadne.

She was ignoring them and seemed too focused on making tea.

"We're going to have to go to the meeting." Miles said. "At least the men should. I would like it if you ladies stayed home with the children."

"And if you go to the meeting and get sick?" Helena said darkly.

"We need to find out what the plan is. Sister Brown is in an uproar already.

~ At the mention of Sister Brown, Ariadne felt her stomach clench tightly. She didn't care that Helena thought that she brought the curse on them. That was her problem for believing in that back woods voodoo. But Sister Brown was crafty and manipulative. She could make people believe anything.

The kettle started to whistle and she came back to reality.

"Does this woman command the entire town?" Arthur was asking. His voice already dark and angry. She hated to admit it, but she liked the sound of his voice. It was calm, even when she could tell he was upset. His words rolled out with deeply like she imagined the ocean waves were.

She felt slightly better that her new friend was questioning the wisdom of Sister Brown. So few did.

"I think we should all go to the meeting. It affects all of us." Ariadne said with courage she didn't think she could have.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

"Girl, bring us the tea now." Helena said.

She felt like ice water was in her body at the cold comment and how Miles turned away from her.

Cobb didn't look away, and only gave her a small, reassuring nod. She saw Arthur was glaring at Cobb. His normally kind eyes squinted sharply in displeasure.

~ Ariadne managed to sneak out an hour after the men left. Helena claimed a headache and the children were busy playing with the card game she had made for them. Little pictures of cows and ducks that taught them to count and entrained them on wet, horrible days when they were forced to be inside the house and were underfoot.

She clutched her sweater tighter to her body and pulled her brother's winter hat over her ears. She practically drowned in her family's old clothing, but she felt closer to them just now. This was the sweater her mother made for her father two years ago. She had worked on it in secret for weeks and surprised him with. He never took it off once the air turned cold and he proclaimed it was the best thing about winter.

Her brother's hat still smelled like him. The days he would come home and his dark, wild hair was kept in check by a hat thrown on at the last moment.

She trudged up the hill and down into the valley like she was on a mission. She could see the town hall already. It was lit up as though there was a wedding. People waiting to get in and have a seat.

Most of them were men, which wasn't surprising, but there were a few matrons there who held the rains of their respective families tightly. Harsh women like Mrs. Lock who's poor husband hardly knew what to do with such an angry thing in his house. She was as outspoken and abrasive as any man in town.

Ariadne ket her head down and trusted the darkness to conceal her.

"We're starting the meeting!" came a call to the men outside. "Standing room only!"

Ariadne was ignored by the crowd who were trying to get a space inside the meeting hall. She recognized all her neighbors, a few were there when she was pried away from burying her family that cold, snowy day.

She had to stand on tip toe to look out over the crowd and finally resorted to climbing up a nearby railing in the back. No one looked at her. She had always been a small woman by any standard. She kept her hat tilted so no one would recognize her. Hopefully, she wouldn't be seen by Cobb or Miles after she was told to stay home.

The hall was so crowded, there were few seats and most of the people had to stand as the Reverend went to his podium.

"My friends." he said in the shy, befuddled way of his that Ariadne liked. She thought it made him more honest to be such an open book. His emotions were naked for all to see and now, he looked adrift at sea with a storm approaching.

The hall fell into an strange hush, and he spoke again.

"When I was a boy, I went for a ride on my horse alone. I was told never to go alone by my mother, because I could get hurt. But, being a child made me think I was invincible to pain and injury." he said. He clasped his hands and shook his head. "Naturally, I was not skilled enough to be jumping any fences, but I did it anyway." He smiled a little. "I fell onto the ground and broke my ankle. The pain was horrible and I cried from the shock of it. I had dirt in my clothes and I had skinned my knee badly.

"Soon, I realized no one was going to help me. So, I resolved to help myself. I kept thinking that I wanted my father. If my father was there, he could pick me up and carry me home. He was a large man and I very much admired him. But I was alone and scared. I thought, if my father really loved me, he would know I was hurt and come and help me. Alas, I was alone in my struggle.

"I managed to climb upon my horse and guide her back to the farm house. With no other recourse, I had to save myself. When I arrived home, I cleaned myself up as best I could. Mother was cross at me for disobeying her, but she was happy I would be okay. When my father go home, he told me how proud he was that I had gotten back on the horse and found my way home. That I didn't let a fall defeat me.

"In that way, I knew what his love was. To have him be proud of his son for doing for himself. Not relying on others to save him.

"Friends, we have fallen. We have been hurt. We are hurting still. But that does not mean our father doesn't love us. Doesn't care for us in our dark hours. He's there, he is waiting for us to pull ourselves up and prove ourselves worthy of his endless love. We mustn't give into fear or we will be children, forever afraid of the dark-"

"Thank you, Reverend." a sharp bossy voice spat as a small, figure stood and marched up to the stand.

Ariadne gasped and felt her blood turn cold again as Sister Brown, black bonnet and black shawl even in the hottest weather, climbed the stage and turned to the towns people.

"We can not let this curse take our town again. It was a blight that was cause by the evil of our very neighbors. I have advised the town leaders to seal off the roads from this moment. Until we are sure the epidemic is past, we can not let anyone in or out of Emerson."

**sorry its been taking me so long to update. work is crazy right now. i've been doing 9 days in a row on my feet a day and i'm really tried when i get home. plus, Netflix is the devil! i love too many shows on there! my new love is supernatural. **


	12. Chapter 12

12.

~ Arthur hated crowds. In the war, he had spent days and nights huddled, half frozen in stinking trenches with hoards of the men who were crying and moaning for home. It made his nerves prickle sharply to be back in the city with it's mobs of people who were always so close. The mass of humanity and noise bothered him like it never had in the days before the war. One of the reasons why he chose to leave it for the less populated spaces of the country.

However, there were at least three hundred people crammed into the town hall this evening and all of their bodies were pressed tightly together as space, sitting or standing, became a premium.

He saw the townsfolk in attendance were mostly men, but a few women had been bold enough to come out. He recognized Wisteria Adams right away. She was seated next to a frightful looking woman with a black bonnet pulled tightly on her head.

"That's Sister Brown." Cobb whispered as they three men tried to find a place to stand in the crowd and the meeting was called to order.

"The one who wanted to hang Ariadne as a witch?" Arthur almost laughed. Never, not even in story book ideas had he thought a person looked more like a witch than Sister Brown herself. She might as well be riding a broom.

"Indeed." Miles said gravely. "Personally, I don't hold to such nonsense, but she had the a lot of people riled up."

Cobb and Arthur said nothing as Sister Brown seemed to have a group of depressing, angry women around her. All of them older and angry looking as they whispered and shook their heads. Their eyes shooting around the room as in searching for who was there and more importantly, who was absent.

He could tell right away that these were the moral leaders of the community, and whatever they said, was as good as law.

"Ariadne," Arthur said with some difficulty as the others in the hall were talking loudly about crops and rain and the snow.

Cobb turned and looked back at him.

"Are the two of you..." Arthur cleared his throat. "Well, are the two of you... close?"

Cobb looked embarrassed.

"I know what it must look like to you." he said bashfully. "She came into my home before Mal died. We wanted to give her a safe place to stay unless this madness settled. Then the sickness took my wife and left me without anyone to help raise my children. Miles and Helena are too old."

He sighed and looked at his shoes.

"I'd be lying if I say I hadn't thought of proposing. It would be an ideal situation for the both of us. But I'm so much older than she is, and there are other concerns." he admitted.

Arthur felt his heart beat hard against his chest in a sort of panic.

So it was true. Cobb had designs on Ariadne. He wanted to marry her, yet didn't protect her from being treated like a servant by his in-laws.

"Other concerns?" Arthur asked.

"She's still suffering over what happened last year. I'd hoped, that she would come around, but it's only gotten worse since the air turned cold." Cobb admitted.

"Well." Arthur said stiffly. "Hopefully that will pass. She will make anyone a fine wife."

"Yes, she will." Cobb said and both men avoided each other's eyes.

Arthur stood with his back to the wall as the minister gave a short sermon. He talked about falling off a horse and spoke with such humility, that Arthur liked him right away. He wasn't at all like the preachers from the war who were always condemning the enemy to hell. Telling the infantry men to be re-baptized so they would be sure to go to heaven when they died. Who's only thoughts were on an afterlife that was always a coin toss anyway.

He found the story of the boy and the horse very satisfying until the small woman Cobb identified as Sister Brown has rushed onto the stage and took the lead from the reverend. Her speech was harsh and full of entitlement.

"There will be guards posted on the road out of Emerson as well as the Mcketon Farm." she said as she announced the town was being sealed off.

There were gasps from the crowd as Sister Brown held out a small black bible as though it were a shield.

"The Devil has found his way back to our town and brought with him his plague. He will strike down the weak and the sinful and only the righteous will take a stand against him. Those who try to leave Emerson, who try and spread the Devil's infection, will be held as criminals against God." she said with a serpent like hiss.

Arthur stood a little straiter and was glad he was well away from this woman. He felt in his bones she was dangerous. Her eyes were black as pitch and her face wrinkled and weathered. But he could see how clever and determined she was. How a hush had fallen over the crowd of people as they watched her.

"Those of us who are righteous, will meet here every evening for prayers." she said darkly and opened her thick bible. "When the beast has broken lose in the streets of Bethlehem, there will surly be a slaughter. It is God's will that we cleve to each other. To weed out the wicked and sinful from our midst."

Arthur had heard enough. He detached himself from the back wall and maneuvered out of the hall. All of the audience seemed entranced by the words of that insane woman.

~ The cool air felt wonderful after the stuffiness of the town hall. All those bodies crammed together reminded him too much of the war and he was glad to be outside where the air was clean and promised more snow.

He thought he heard a sob coming from the dark corners of the building outside and turned towards it. He could still hear Sister Brown's loud, cat like hissing as she talked about sinners and hell and damnation. About the devil roosting in the homes of wicked who denied God.

"Hello?" he called out as he saw something in the dark shadows move.

He recognized her small frame right away. Her large, green sweater, that seemed to belong to a man, and a wide brimmed work hat hung low over her head. She looked like a little girl playing dress up in clothes so much bigger than hers.

"Ariadne?" he tried not to smile at seeing her.

He checked behind him and then hurried to her. Tears welling up and staining her once flawless skin a deep red.

"What are you doing here?" he whispered as he joined her. Their hiding place just shadows from the building. The outside only lit but the glowing oil lamps inside the hall.

"What did you think of Sister Brown?" Ariadne asked bitterly as she nodded to the front doors.

Arthur let out a sigh and produced his handkerchief. His hands neatly drying her cheeks with small dabs. Her face seeming to delicate to touch.

She looked a mess from all her crying, but she seemed more angry than sad at the moment.

"I think she's a bit worrisome." Arthur admitted.

"Mr. Williams, can we leave? Can we leave tonight? Before the snow even comes?" she asked hopefully.

He felt the worry go deep in his bones. He knew they could never just walk out of town with no money and no car or buggy to take them. They would need train tickets and supplies to get them anywhere.

"We can ask Mr. Cobb in the morning." he said at last.

"Sister Brown says they're going to close the town off." she whispered nervously.

"They can't." he tried to laugh.

"They will." she told him. "There is only one road out of Emerson and if it's guarded-" she tried to say.

"Then we hike out through the woods."

"That's ten miles." she told him. "That's rough terrain."

"Miss Harper," he said calmly. "Right now, we should just wait and see. If we panic and try to run, we might end up worse than we already are."

She looked at him with such misery in her eyes he felt he had offended her.

"That's what we did last year." she whispered sadly. "We waited. We butchered a cow early and sat around the kitchen fire eating small meals so we wouldn't run out of food. Every day we expected to get sick and die. Every day we heard that black bell." she looked up at the modest steeple of the town hall. A steeple that so neatly concealed the black bell of legend.

He tried to understand, but couldn't make himself feel her fear.

"Let's get back to the house." he said at last. "Before Miles and Cobb catch you."


	13. Chapter 13

13.

~ Arthur watched the fire dance over the logs from his spot in Ariadne's rocking chair. He knew now why she liked it so much. It was the warmest spot in the house, by the fire. He tried to ignore the sound of her behind the screen as she was taking the time to have her own bath. She was always the one to heat hot water for everyone else in the family. No one gave a thought to her own bathing needs.

The screen was up and Arthur made sure to keep his back to it and his eyes focused on the flames.

Still, he could hear the splash of water. Smell the heavy perfumed soap of raw natural lavender.

'_So this is how she smells._' he thought with sudden interest. '_Like raw lavender, freshly cut from the fields. Like apples and cinnamon."_

He relaxed into the well built rocker as they talked about the meeting and Sister Brown taking the stage.

They had walked home from town hall in the darkness without saying much. Both of them nervous about the idea of the town being sealed off. James and Phillipa were still up but quickly sent to bed. An hour or so later, they heard Cobb and Miles come in through the front door. Talking in low voices about the meeting and what it all meant.

Arthur and Ariadne sat perfectly still as they could only hear the sounds of their voices through the thick walls.

She had looked back at him with those dark, enchanting eyes of hers, so much like a doll in a shop window, before they heard the noises of doors being shut and knew that the house would soon be still and asleep.

She had stood then and hastily explained she needed to take her bath and wouldn't be long.

Arthur, lacking his own room to run to to grant her privacy, had to distract himself as she boiled water and set up the bathing screen.

He cut some more bread and toasted it on the open flames.

"I take it you don't cook much." she teased him as he tried to ignore the sounds of her in the water. Her body, defenseless if he chose to steal a glance.

"I used to cook food over an open fire all the time in the war." Arthur said as he gently laid out the perfectly cooked bread on the wooden cutting board. "We would open tin cans, and set them close to the camp fire. They would cook in the cans." he said as if she wouldn't believe it.

"It's so strange to think people get food out of cans nowadays." she said.

"Well, we can't all grow our own food." he chuckled.

"My family has always farmed. I started keeping chickens when I was only five." she told him smartly.

He said nothing as she went on.

"We had a small farm. Small cottage to. My granny was the one who taught me how to make preserves. She would can all day and sew all night. My brothers would plow our field and then our neighbors to earn extra money or to trade." she told him.

"What did you do?" he asked and opened his pocket knife to cut a lump of cheese for to eat.

"Chickens, cows and the garden." she sighed. "I raised three calves and sold them myself."

"Impressive." he said. Although, he didn't understand how great of an accomplishment that was. He was still a city boy who didn't know all the work it took to put food on the table. How much planning it required to store enough for winter and how a family could starve if the canning wasn't done right or the meats weren't salted properly.

"Why did you want to come to the meeting?" he asked at length.

She didn't answer.

"You had to have known that Brown woman would be there." he added.

"I haven't been to the town hall, to the church, since my family died." she said.

"Sister Brown is making it mandatory for people to attended evening services." he sighed. "She'll whip them all up into a frenzy before long."

"We should leave now." she hissed from the screen.

He shook his head.

"We've only had one death." he whispered calmly. "Only one person has died and we can't be certain it was the flu. Lets wait a few days and then when no one else dies, there won't be this quarantine."

"Arthur, what if it_ is_ back?" she asked him. "What if the flu is back and we all die or I get hanged for a witch?"

"You won't be. I won't let it." he promised darkly.

He heard the water splash slightly and tried not to think about her, small, naked body in the warm water. She was so achingly close to him, right there. The whole house was asleep and she was naked not four feet away.

There was a pounding silence of expectation. He could hear his own heart beat as the two of them seem to except the other to do something.

Finally, mercifully, he heard noises of her getting out o the tub. She emerged from the screen fully dressed in fresh clean night clothes.

"I'll dump your water." he said quickly.

She nodded gratefully as the smell of raw lavender hung in the air. Tickling his nose as her she tried to dry her damp hair as best she could by the fire.

"I should go to bed." She sighed at last and looked to him as if expecting him to stop her.

"Good night." he said awkwardly.

~ Arthur had settled himself back in bed and smoothed his covers neatly over his body. He was glad for the cozy nook and curtains concealing him just now. It felt safer. Almost directly above him, he could hear Ariadne stirring. He sensed she was still awake and troubled.

Maybe, they should try to leave. Not in the night, that would be suicide. If the guards didn't get them, wolves would. During the day, the road out would be too well guarded. Through the woods was ten miles of dangerous hills and they could easily become lost. They would lose daylight and die that way.

No. It was better to adopt a wait and see attitude. They were safe here for now. They had shelter, food and if they avoided that insane Brown woman and her growing flock, they would be fine.

'_If worse comes to worse, we could hide in the woods until it's over_.' he thought. Remembering how he had to camp in the middle of winter with little more than a pup tent for shelter.

"Arthur?" came a whispered voice.

He jumped and saw the firelight held an outline of a woman. Ariadne carefully pulled back the curtains and peered in at him in his bed.

"Miss Harper?" he said and heard his voice break slightly.

"I can't sleep." she said at last and he could see the outline of her thin body through her night gown. The light from the fire providing a convenient source for him to see through the fabric.

He wasn't breathing as his brain tried to think.

'_What is she doing?_' he thought as she tentatively climbed into his bed.

He only watched, his breathing coming heavy as she closed the curtains shut and sealed them off from the rest of the world.

"Ariadne?" he whispered as she sat on the end of his bed. "What are you doing here?"

He felt all the blood race down from his brain as she unbuttoned her night gown and slipped it off her head. Her body, small and slight was beautiful in the weak, blunted fire light. Her large brown eyes looking back at him. Judging him as he stared at her; transfixed.

He took in every detail of her. The soft rise of her breasts, the deep hue of her nipples, and the shadowed places between her legs.

"I was supposed to have been married." she sighed. "I don't want leave this life without ever having been with a man."

He was helpless as she crawled over to him. Her body cat like as she slipped under his blankets and settled next to him.

He tried to clear his throat as a longing for her welled up inside him and became animal like.

His hands found her hair as he could feel her feet tickle his.

"I thought you and Cobb." he said weakly as he wanted more than anything in the world to kiss her.

She shook her head.

Her fingers running over his lips and hair line. As though she were trying to memorize every feature of his face.

"We're... um..." he fumbled as he felt a need grow hard at the thought of her naked beside him. "We're not married." he managed to get out.

"I don't care." she whispered. "I won't survive the winter anyway."

He felt as if someone had stabbed him when he heard her say that.

"What?" he asked as he couldn't stop touching her hair.

"I know that I won't survive the winter." she said simply. "I'm afraid of the cold, and now with the flu."

She shook her head and he saw tears bloom in her eyes like flowers.

"I don't want to die without knowing... things." she said.

He almost wanted to laugh at that.

"Ariadne. Put you night dress back on." he said.

She pulled away from him.

"You don't want me?" she whispered and her voice reflected deep hurt.

"I do." he said.

She shook her head, not understanding.

"Not like this." he whispered as his lips found hers and he felt helplessly into her kiss.

Her body was so warm and perfect that he couldn't think of one good reason not to have her.


	14. Chapter 14

14.

~ Arthur heard the unmistakable sounds of Ariadne stoking the fire the next morning. her small feet in those awful work boots making the floor creek.

His dreams, fitful and beautiful collapsed at the first sign they were not real.

He had dreamed that she had come to his bed last night. Dreamed they had made love and as he opened his eyes to dawn, he knew it hadn't really happened. He had slept alone in his little bed and despite him wanting her, Ariadne had never come to him.

He close his eyes and tried in vain to hold onto the dream of her naked body melding with his. Of all the things he wanted to do with her in the privacy of his bed. But holding onto the dream was like trying to hold smoke in your hands. It vanished and became distorted and left him with nothing more then the cold dawn of reality.

"Arthur?" he heard her whisper.

He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

"Arthur, wake up." she hissed again and he felt her hands, small but strong shake him.

"What is it?" he murmured.

"Get dressed, the home guard is going from house to house." she said with urgency. "Their looking for anyone who is sick."

He sat up and looked at her, for the first time ever, seeing her with her dark hair down. Her big green sweater was still wrapped around her slight body, and her eyes looked impossibly large against the early light of dawn.

He had to tell himself he was awake and not ask her to come back to bed with him.

"Get dressed." she said again and stood.

~ In the sitting room with it's piano and greed sofa, the whole family gathered. Miles and Helena were looking a little tired as men with riffles were standing over them, blocking the front door and any chance for escape.

Arthur followed Ariadne as she brought a sleepy James down from the loft. Phillipa was already in Cobb's arms and trying not to cry.

"Is this everyone?" a large, heavy set man asked as Ariadne shushed James.

"Mr. Williams is the new school teacher." Cobb explained when Arthur didn't take a seat next to Ariadne and earned a nasty glare from one of the guards. These men wanted the family submissive and scared.

There was a skinny man, almost female in his bone structure and face. His eyes were a startlingly blue and he looked over at Ariadne with an affection that made Arthur hate him.

The skinny man was one of the guards, but obviously not as well trained or fanatical about it as the others were.

"Well, Miles." the large and obvious leader of the group sighed. "Sister Brown sent us to you first to see how you're family is holding up."

"We're fine, Mr. Rivers." Miles said dryly as Ariadne tried to move closer to the family and out of sight.

"I'm sorry, why are you here?" Arthur asked.

His sleep, more importantly, his dreams had been disturbed by this rude interruption at first light. He didn't like the fear that gripped the room when these men were in it. Didn't like the way the skinny man looked at Ariadne and the way she avoided him.

"We're here to inform you of the services Sister Brown will be conducting in a few hours. All the town will be required to come." the large man said casually.

"Required?" Arthur asked.

"Any truancy will be seen as an acknowledgment of lack of faith." the big man said.

Arthur almost laughed.

"Impressive vocabulary, son." he chuckled even though the man was older than him and three times his size.

"Arthur." Cobb said calmly.

"So you're Mr. Williams?" the big man called Rivers said. "We've noticed the sickness came back as soon a you came to town."

"Mr. Rivers, we'll all be there." Miles said and stood up. "Sister Brown is right that this is the time for community."

The guards looked over at Miles who was humble before them.

"Right." Rivers said and then eyed Arthur maliciously. "Now, is anyone in the house sick yet?"

The family shook their heads and Ariadne refused to look up.

"Good." Rivers said.

"What are you doing to the homes of those who are sick?" Arthur asked. Part of him not wanting to know.

One man among the guards held a bucket of red paint and showed him a crafty grin of missing teeth.

"Like in the good book. We mark the doors where plague has been." Rivers said.

"Moses had the slaves mark the doors so the angel of death wouldn't enter." Arthur corrected.

"You know, I don't care for your tone." Rivers said.

"Mr. Williams is new here." Miles explained. "He doesn't understand."

"He will." Rivers said sharply. "He will understand that the devil is lose and only those who are righteous can defeat him."

~ "It's only been a day." Arthur fumed an hours later.

He found himself drawn to Ariadne as she did her house work. He didn't want to sit with Cobb, but chose to stay closer to Ariadne. She was doing a fancy embroidery by the fire. The sun coming from the window and causing her hair to once more light up like a halo of flames.

"It's only been a day and the town is under lock down and we have illiterate guards already misinterpreting the bible.

"Ashton Rivers." Miles said darkly. "He was a student of mine and not very bright even in the best of times. He was raised by a fanatical mother and thinks Sister Brown is the second coming if he knew what that even was."

"The skinny one to." Arthur said he was glad to be seated next to Ariadne's rocking chair and not at the table with the rest of the family.

"That was Robert Fisher." she sighed and snipped off the bright red thread with grace and ease.

He looked at her. It was impossible. That skinny, boy like creature was her former intended.

"He only goes with the guards because he thinks they're his friends." she explained and threaded her needle with a lovely purple color.

She was working on an stitching piece that said the lord's prayer and was almost done with it. All around the words were flowers and animals. It looked positively cheerful and evoked memories of spring. Not the snow that had already started to fall again.

"So, what do we do?" Arthur asked the family.

"What can we do?" Miles sighed helplessly. "We go to the meeting."

"In a large group, the flu is more likely to spread." Arthur warned.

"If we don't go, they might burn the house down." Cobb sighed. "It's what happened to the Millers."

"This is madness." Arthur said darkly.

He looked up at Ariadne. Her face already dark with fear.

**Sorry again for not updating. I'd written a lot, but wasn't too happy with the pages I was turning out. My old job, I had a lot of down time so I could write a lot while at work, no problem. Thats how I did a chap a day. My new job, which I like very much, has me working daytime hours and we're very busy. I go in at 8 am and come home at 6. I cook dinner, do some house work, watch a little TV or Netflix or read. GOD! Is this what it's like to be a normal person?**


	15. Chapter 15

15.

~ Ariadne wasn't looking forward to going back to the town hall and it's ghastly memories of last winter. Still, the order from the home guard was law just now. Rivers and his pack of thugs were going around from house to house now telling each family to come to meeting.

"The illness will spread faster this way. We all need to just stay home." Arthur told her as they hung a wash out to dry in the cold air.

Since the visit from Mr. Rivers and the others, Arthur hadn't let Ariadne stray too far from his sight. He was like a bee, always buzzing around her to the point she almost asked him to leave. Normally, the family left her alone to do her chores, hang the light washing, cook dinner, or sew. Arthur wanted to be close to her while she did all those mundane tasks.

Her hands were freezing as she tried to hang a wet load of towels on the line to dry. The sun promised to come out today and she wanted to get as much laundry done as possible before any real snow set in.

"Arthur, who taught you to hang a wash?" she laughed as she saw how her new friend hung pants.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"The waist will never dry like that, hang them upside-down." she shook her head and found a part of her heart shifted at him helping her.

Not in all her life had she ever known a man to help with women's work. It was true her father would clean up the house with mother. Maybe even cook a little, but sewing and laundry were the strict domain of women. Arthur was incompetent at the task, but it was still nice of him to try.

She suspected it was because he liked her. She often caught him stealing glances at her from time to time. His eyes quickly roaming over her as if afraid to be caught. When he was caught, he looked away and tried to pretend it was something else that had him so enraptured.

It was the same behavior she had observed in school with the more popular girls. Only in those cases, the boys would throw things at the girls who stuck their favor. Arthur was too grown up for that, so he had only to steal glances left in his arsenal.

She felt her face blush slightly at the idea someone as well educated as Arthur would like her. She had been flattered when Robert had started to court her, but he was nothing like Arthur.

"So that was Robert." Arthur sighed as if reading her mind.

"Yes." she said casually. She wouldn't give him any more information.

"He seems, _delicate_." Arthur said. His tone trying to be complimentary and coming out sour.

She had to bite her bottom lip to keep a smile at bay.

"He was different last year. He was sick with the flu and never really recovered." she admitted sadly.

"Is that the reason you decided not to marry him? I mean, that and your parents?" he asked.

She wasn't sure how to answer. She wasn't the same silly girl she had been last year. A girl looking forward to a wedding to the handsome son of the town doctor. Robert was having a house built for them in Temple and she would live a better life there than in the country. But the flu changed everything and everyone.

"After he got sick, after my parents died and the whole world was ending, I just couldn't be the same person I was." she admitted.

"Was it him that didn't want to marry you, or you didn't want to marry him?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"I gave him back the ring. It wasn't fair to him if I wasn't going to be around another winter." she bit her tongue back. Her inner thought betraying her.

"Why do you think you're destined to die, Ariadne?" Arthur asked.

"We're all dying, Arthur." she told him and focused on hanging the sheets better. The fabric might catch some of the scent of the pine trees and the chill of winter.

"Yes, but you think you'll die soon." he corrected.

"I think I should have died with my family. I don't know why I was spared." she told him.

"A greater purpose?" he offered and tried to hang socks in a way that would take all day to dry.

"Like what? Working for Helena? Having the town's people whisper about me?" she laughed.

"Why not leave?" he asked.

"I have nothing. My family's farm was the banks, and we lost animals and crops during the sickness. I have nothing." she sighed.

She looked up at the sky that threatened snow.

"Even if we leave, Arthur, even if we do it tonight, the home guard will catch us, lock us in the town hall cellar. If we don't freeze to death first." she added.

She looked over at her friend.

"I'm sorry Ariadne." he sighed. "I didn't think it would be this way. We should have left sooner."

"There was no way to know. Besides, where would we go?"

"California?" he said with a mischievous smile.

She felt her heart warm at the fact he remembered her telling him about the land she had only read about.

~ As soon as the sun set, the town hall was crowded with life. People, men, women and children were sitting in pews, standing in aisles and up in the balcony.

Ariadne had dressed in her Sunday best. A blue dress that was too thin for winter, but looked nice enough with her mother's winter coat. She wouldn't give it to Sister Brown to see her slovenly.

The mass of people made her forget for a moment that there had been a great loss of life in town. Her family had been regulars to church services all her life and the town hall was always full, but never like this.

Women shushed cranky babies and children played tag along the aisle as worried fear gripped them all. Some were reading from the family bible, others were talking about the home guard coming to their houses.

"Ariadne." she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Robert coming up the aisle to her.

"Hello Robert." she said and swallowed hard. He didn't look at all well these days. His frame was still too thin and he had been the victim of an unfortunate haircut.

"You look well." he said as he held his hat in his large hands.

"Thank you." was all she managed to get out as she scanned the crowd for Arthur. Her friend had walked with her to the town hall and hand't left her side all day. But she had lost him in the mass of people upon coming in.

"I was hoping you would sit with me in the Fisher family pew. It's in the first row." he offered and showed her the more restricted section that was reserved for the devoted and wealthy town people.

She shook her head. Knowing what it meant to sit in the same pew as a man who was not your family member. It their world, it meant that she was serious with Robert Fisher again. That she wanted to be apart of his family and literally chose his side. She had done it when they first got engaged. A giggly girl, excited to sit next to her intended with her father's permission. A public notice that they were practically husband and wife.

"I think I'll sit in the balcony." she sighed and stepped away from him.

"Ariadne, there's no need to keep staying at the Cobb's I told you, I would look after you. Nothing has changed in that regard." he said

"Robert." she whispered.

"Is everything alright?" she felt the tension build as Arthur was there by her side. His sudden presence in the wash of people made her grateful, only because it tool Robert's attention off her.

"I was talking to Miss Harper." Robert said coldly to Arthur.

"Well, Miss Harper and I were about to take our seats for your little mandatory meeting." Arthur said hatefully and Ariadne felt his hands on her shoulder. The same gesture she had seen her father and mother do when he wanted her to come with him. Often having to pull her away from her friends so they could go home. Her mother, still a school girl at heart gossiping the day away.

Robert's face looked angry and bitter as they turned away and she pointed out the narrow stairs to the balcony.

"So many people." she said as if to make conversation.

"What did Robert want?" Arthur demanded.

"For me to sit with him." she told him honestly as they reached the balcony and saw it was populated by a group of women and children. A place to take fussy babies so they wouldn't disturb the service.

Her friend seemed mad at the statement as they found a seat in the back row. She could feel a cold, ice like breeze coming from her back and realized why this row was empty. The small steeple was behind them and the drafts let in the bitter winter air.

She hugged her coat on tighter as the air blasted at them. Directly over head, was the black bell. A simple bell that was smaller than the others.

"A little ominous, isn't it?" Arthur teased as he looked up. His eyes following hers.

She shivered slightly and, as if by a perfectly timed dance, his warm hands took her cold ones. Like he was kneading dough, he worked her fingers till the blood became warmer. But even then, he didn't let go.

"As soon as the meetings over, he whispered." she looked hopefully at him. "We're going to leave."


	16. Chapter 16

16.

~ Susanna Brooks ran a hand over her daughter's face. The fever gripping the little girl as she let out a moan of discomfort. Her skin a bright red from being too hot.

The child started to complain that she 'wasn't right' last night. WIth the news of the flu, the young mother took no chances, and folded her only daughter into bed and made her drink warm tea.

Her daughter, Tabitha, had survived the flu last winter. The whole family had come out better than expected. The only person who died was Susanna's husband, but that was for the best. He wasn't much used to her by then anyway. In only a few months, she had remarried to a man who also lost his wife to the scourge.

She and James Brooks had been happy, the children were all young enough to forget the parent that had been taken. For Susanna, there was a certain delight in marrying and being in bed with a man who was not her first husband. It was like the flu had granted them all a second chance.

Her new husband had come home last week from selling their herd of cattle. James Brooks was a tall, handsome, healthy young man of not quite thirty. He was blessed with two young boys who were handy in ranch work and Susanna brought her young daughter to the marriage to help with the house work.

Her new husband was a big, man who made her small body look extra tiny. She was a little afraid of him the first time after they were married. But she soon found out he was like any other man down there. His hands were rough, but gentle, and she hoped for another baby soon.

She had missed Jim while he was gone. The house was lonely was just children to care for.

"How is she?" Jim asked when he came though the door. His massive body blocking the entire frame.

"Complaining she's dizzy." Susanna whispered as she came out of the little sick room.

"You don't think it's the flu, do you?" he asked, child like in his fears.

She looked at her new husband. His fine, bright blue eyes, his youthful, trusting face. Wanting her to be the grown up in the house. It was often that she felt they were just playing house. That really, they were no more than children themselves.

"She'll be fine. It might pass in the morning." Susanna said although she was worried.

"I'll tell the boys to sleep in the loft. Keep them away." he offered hoping to show he knew what to do about a sick child.

"They were playing together all day yesterday." she sighed. "If she has it, they have it."

"You haven't been to town, have you?" he asked.

She shook her head and clutched nervously at her apron.

Her big hearted husband in his rough work boots and a body that he had never gotten used to with the growth of adolescence leaned on the door jab.

Poor Jim. He didn't know what to do when his first wife got sick and died. He knew even less now. All he knew was that the sick needed a woman to care for them. Not a man like him who was always breaking things and never comfortable inside.

"We need to stay away from town." Susanna concluded logically.

"Rivers says SIster Brown wants us there at that meeting." Jim said and coughed a dry cough.

"I don't care what she's says. She's not our relation and the way she just invited herself to our house last month demanding to know why the boys weren't baptized was the last straw. I won't have her tell the children they're going to hell."

Jim smiled. He liked his feisty little wife. Her bright red hair meaning she had fire in her. Or so everyone warned him. She was always angry at something, but he liked that about her. She was strong and small, he was big and gentle. Together they were happy.

His large body was feeling more run down than normal. He had helped his neighbor with a fence all day and before that, was gone with the cattle to sell in the larger city.

"You look exhausted." Susanna said as Jim felt a headache starting.

He smiled and put his large hand around her slight waist. He liked how small she was. How pretty and prim she was in his house. That she was a delicate, breakable thing that could so easily be lost, made him hold her tighter.

"Jim?" Susanna whispered. "You're burning up."

She pulled away from him as if he had been working with the pigs and hadn't taken a bath.

"I'm fine. I've just been walking." he said although he suddenly felt dizzy himself.

It was too warm in here. Why was there a fire in the hearth when it was too warm already? He needed to sit down. If he sat down, he might not fall down.

"Jim!" Susanna was screaming as his heavy body fell on the floor.

He groaned as he felt a little better laying there. His eyes opening just long enough to see Tabitha's rag doll on the floor. His son's little shoes by the door. His pretty young wife, her flaming red hair come lose from it's stays as she tried to make him sit up. She was washing his face with cold water. Telling the boys to stay in the loft no matter what.

He wanted to sleep. Needed to sleep as the dizziness was too powerful. He found it hard to breath. His body was too hot and he was too weak to even even keep his eyes open. Too weak to push his breath out.

Sleep, he need to sleep. If he fell into that black abyss of sleep, he would be alright. Susanna was crying for him as he couldn't help but slip away. His spirt floating out of him with one last breath, as though it were weightless.

**Saw "Don Jon" today! Very racy movie! I have to say JGL acting was top of his game and it was a good movie. I'm not used to seeing our guy... like that, but he was wonderful. I kinda hoped he would have kept the body, cuz it was amazing. **

** It wasn't what I thought it would be, but still really good. I was so proud of our boy when I saw the "HitRecord" come on the big screen. I feel like a lot of this movie may have been based on personal experience, and would love to hear from you guys about it. PM me!**


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